The UK Ministry of Defence has said that Russia’s “unprofessional practices” has led to its high death rate during President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
In a statement, the MoD said: “The Russian military has a record of unsafe ammunition storage from well before the current war, but this incident highlights how unprofessional practices contribute to Russia’s high casualty rate.”
It comes as the Russian Foreign Ministry increased the death toll of a Ukrainian missile strike on Russian-controlled Makiivka, in Donetsk from 63 sevicemen to 89. Although an investigation into the incident – with Ukraine having claimed hundreds of casualties in the attack – the ministry said the main reason for the assault was the mass use of mobile phones by troops, which it described as illegal.
"This factor allowed the enemy to track and determine the coordinates of the soldiers' location for a missile strike".
The New Year's Eve strike is the deadliest single incident Moscow has acknowledged since the start of the war. Ukraine says 400 soldiers were killed and 300 more injured in the attack.
Commanders were accused of having ignored clear danger after the Kremlin took the rare step on Monday of admitting to losses in a strike on a makeshift barracks.
A popular Russian nationalist military blogger earlier said the deaths were a result of storing ammunition in the same building as a barracks despite commanders knowing it was within range of a Ukrainian military bolstered by munitions from Western nations.
The anger was also felt by politicians. Sergei Mironov, a legislator and former chair of Russia’s upper house demanded criminal liability for the officials who had “allowed the concentration of military personnel in an unprotected building”.
