Yahoo Sports Himars strike wipes out crowd of Russian soldiers lined up to hear general's speech
More than a hundred Russian soldiers may have been killed by a Ukrainian Himars strike after they were ordered to wait in large numbers to listen to a general’s speech, Russian sources have said.
The Russian ministry of defence has not commented on the reported attack, which bloggers connected to the Russian military said occurred near the front line in the Luhansk region on Wednesday morning,
“Near Kremenna a tragic incident took place in one of the divisions mustered there for an offensive. People stood in a crowd for two hours in one place and waited for the divisional commander to give his motivational speech,” reported Rybar, a war blog with close links to the Russian military.
The crowd was hit by “Ukrainian Himars and artillery” before the general showed up, Rybar reported.
Kremenna is the Russian spelling for the Ukrainian town of Kreminna. It is currently held by Russia but is less than ten miles behind the frontline, putting it well within range of larger artillery systems.
Several military Telegram channels blamed Maj Gen Zurab Akhmedov, the commander of the 20th combined arms army, for the disaster, but did not provide specific evidence.
Maj Gen Akhmedov was last year accused by Russian marines of using them as “cannon fodder” during a poorly planned attack that they said cost 300 lives.
The Russian ministry of defence at the time denied the 155 Marine Infantry, whose men wrote an open letter accusing the general of incompetence, had suffered heavy losses.
The exact number of casualties is not yet clear, but some suggested more died there than in several days of recent fighting on the southern front, where Ukraine is mounting a large counter offensive.
If confirmed, that would make it the worst single casualty incident suffered by Russian forces since a Himars strike on a school being used as a barracks near Donetsk on New Year’s Eve.
High-precision Himars strikes on Russian positions have dropped off in recent months after the Kremlin developed electronic warfare methods to jam the rockets’ guidance systems.
The attack on Kremmina may signal that Ukraine has succeeded in reprogramming the rockets to overcome those measures.
Wagner boss ‘at Berlusconi’s funeral’
Yevgenny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group and a public critic of the Russian ministry of defence, said he could not comment on the alleged attacks because he was “at [Silvio] Berlusconi’s funeral” on Wednesday.
Mr Prigozhin is under European Union sanctions, making it highly unlikely he attended Berlusconi’s lying in state in Milan.
Neither side reported significant activity on the southern front on Thursday. Several Russian sources said it was raining heavily, which may have prompted a pause in combat operations.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said that his forces were facing “very tough resistance”, but predicted Moscow’s downfall if the counter-offensive succeeded, adding: “For Russia to lose this campaign to Ukraine, I would say, actually means losing the war.”
Meanwhile, Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, said that Ukraine still had plenty of firepower left to conduct its counter-offensive, despite initial losses inflicted by Russia.
Moscow has played up footage showing German Leopard tanks and US Bradley fighting vehicles it claims were captured in the assaults.
“I think the Russians have shown us that same five vehicles about 1,000 times from 10 different angles,” Mr Austin said after a meeting of Ukraine and its Western backers in Brussels.
Ukraine said three Russian cruise missiles hit industrial facilities in the city of Krivih Rih overnight. One other missile and 20 explosive drones were intercepted.
Sergei Aksyonov, the head of Russian-occupied Crimea, said nine Ukrainian drones were shot down over the peninsula.
