Moscow refutes Ukraine's claims of 400 Russian soldiers killed, says toll stands at 89

The Russian soldiers killed in the Ukrainian strike in Donetsk on New Year's eve have reached 89, CNN reported citing the Russian Defence Ministry.

According to both Ukrainian and pro-Russian accounts, the apparent Ukrainian strike occurred shortly after midnight on Sunday at a vocational school housing Russian conscripts in Makiivka in the Donetsk region.

Among those killed, there was the regiment's deputy commander, Lt. Col. Bachurin, according to the statement of the Russian Defence Ministry.

The Russian Ministry of Defense admitted on Monday, in a rare admission, that 63 servicemen were killed in Makiivka when Ukraine used HIMARS rockets to attack a building where Russian soldiers were quartered. After more bodies were discovered under the rubble, the Russian Defense Ministry updated the death toll.

"The Kyiv regime struck with six rockets of the US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system at the temporary deployment point of one of the units of the Russian armed forces in the area of the settlement of Makiivka in the Donetsk People's Republic," TASS quoted the Russian Defence Ministry as saying.

Ukraine earlier claimed that 400 Russian soldiers were killed and 300 others injured after Ukrainian armed forces struck a Russian military base in the Makiivka region of Donetsk.

( With inputs from ANI )

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