MOSCOW (Reuters) – In Russia, discontent with the military leadership is growing after a Ukrainian attack on a barracks that killed at least 63 people.
Senator and former Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin called for an internal investigation. Deputy Sergey Mironov has demanded that officers who ordered the placement of soldiers in an unprotected building be held accountable. In a rare admission of backlash, the Russian military on Monday admitted that rockets hit a makeshift barracks in the Donetsk town of Makiivka. Ukraine had spoken of hundreds of Russian soldiers killed.
Sharp criticism also came from military bloggers. Former Russian commander Igor Girkin, one of the most influential bloggers, criticized the fact that ammunition was stored next to the barracks despite being within range of Ukrainian missiles. Blogger Archangel Spetznaz Z, who has over 700,000 followers on Telegram, wrote: “Who came up with the idea of putting many soldiers in a building where even a fool understands that even if an artillery hit there will be many wounded or dead?”
Mourning rallies were held in several Russian cities on Tuesday. In Samara, where several victims came from, flowers were laid in the city center, RIA Novosti news agency reported.
(Reuters Bureau, written by Hans Busemann, edited by Ralf Bode. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at [email protected])