‘A retaliatory media operation’

Not even Russian pro-war Telegram channels believe Moscow’s claims about its attack on Kramatorsk

Early on January 8, hours after Moscow’s Orthodox Christmas “ceasefire” ended, the Russian military launched seven missile strikes on the city of Kramatorsk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, damaging at least two buildings. Russia’s Defense Ministry announced afterwards that the attack had been a “retaliatory operation” in response to Ukraine’s deadly New Year’s Day strike on a Russian barracks in Makiivka. Moscow says it killed more than 600 Ukrainian soldiers in the Kramatorsk strike, but Ukrainian officials and international journalists on the ground have been unable to find evidence of even a single casualty. The evidence they’ve provided to the contrary has led several of the invasion’s loudest cheerleaders on Telegram to criticize Russia’s own military leadership.

A week after the Ukrainian military’s New Year’s Day strike on Russian barracks in Makiivka, the Russian Defense Ministry announced it had conducted a “retaliatory operation”: a strike on dormitories repurposed as military barracks in Kramatorsk that Moscow claims killed hundreds of soldiers. So far, however, officials and journalists on the ground in Kramatorsk have been unable to confirm these reports; on the contrary, all of the evidence seems to indicate that there were no casualties at all.

At a briefing on January 8, Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said that “more than 600 Ukrainian soldiers were destroyed” in the attack, adding that the total number of troops in the barracks exceeded 1,300.

Ukraine’s military command immediately denied Russia’s claim that the attack resulted in casualties, calling it an “information operation” and adding that “this information is as accurate as the data about them destroying all of our HIMARS.” Ukrainian officials didn’t dispute that Russia carried out an attack on Kramatorsk; even before Konashenkov’s briefing, Kramatorsk authorities reported that seven Russian missile strikes on the city had caused damage to two school buildings, but they did not report any deaths.

Western journalists located in Kramatorsk also cast doubt on Russia’s claims about Ukrainian casualties. ‪Antti Kuronen, a reporter from the Finnish broadcaster Yle, published photos of several bomb craters and one of the damaged buildings. He noted that the school wasn’t insulated, which would be unusual if it had been housing Ukrainian soldiers, as Russian authorities claimed. According to Kuronen, neither he nor any of the local residents he spoke to saw any bodies or ambulances at the scene.

Journalists from Reuters who examined the damaged buildings were also unable to find any signs that soldiers had been living there, nor did they discover any human remains or traces of blood. Meanwhile, CNN reporters noted the lack of unusual activity” in the area, including at the city morgue.

Even Russian pro-war Telegram channels challenged the Russian Defense Ministry’s story. The channel Military Information called Konashenkov’s statements “window dressing” and a “retaliatory media operation,” pointing out that, judging by photographs from Kramatorsk, none of Russia’s missiles hit buildings directly.

In another critical post, the channel Grey Zone, which claims to have ties to the Wagner mercenary group, sarcastically said that while the dorm buildings themselves weren’t destroyed, “we can’t turn our noses up just yet, because the Ukro-Nazis’ control center, evidently, is actually located in the garage, [where the missile landed].”