Makiivka strike: what were the competing casualty claims?
A look back at the Ukrainian missile attack on a Makiivka building used as barracks, and the gap between the two sides' figures.
What did the world know on 2 January 2023 about the strike on Makiivka? Reports from 31 December 2022 said Ukraine claimed that hundreds of mobilised Russian soldiers had been killed or injured when a missile hit a vocational school building serving as military barracks. Russian authorities acknowledged several casualties but suggested lower figures.
The gap between the accounts was the central question hanging over the event on that date. Ukrainian claims spoke of hundreds of dead and wounded; the Russian side conceded only a smaller toll.
What later became clearer
The strike hit Professional Technical School No. 19 in Makiivka, Donetsk Oblast, during the night of 31 December 2022 and 1 January 2023. It was carried out by the Ukrainian Ground Forces using HIMARS rockets, and it destroyed the building and nearby military equipment.
Ukrainian officials claimed that 400 Russian troops had been killed. Russian officials initially confirmed 63 dead, then raised the figure to 89 two days later, a revision that came after the covered date.
On 2 January 2023, then, the two sides' figures remained far apart, and the Russian count was still rising.
