Russia ups death toll in Ukraine strike, blames cellphone use

Workers clean rubbles after Ukrainian rocket strike in Makiivka, in Russian-controlled Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on Jan 3, 2023. The Russian Defense Ministry on Jan 4 said more corpses had been found under the rubble, raising the estimate for the number killed to 89 from 63 reported earlier. — AP

Russia raised the death toll in a Ukrainian rocket attack on New Year’s Day, to 89, the largest such loss it’s yet acknowledged in the war, blaming soldiers’ mobile-phone use for exposing their location.

But Russian military bloggers, who have often been sharply critical of the Defense Ministry’s handling of the war, accused commanders of negligence for stationing mobilised conscripts next to a weapons depot. Its detonation multiplied the casualties after Ukrainian forces fired at the base in the Russian-controlled part of eastern Ukraine with US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers.