Rejecting the claim, Serhiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for the Ukrainian army, told the BBC on Sunday night that “this is another piece of Russian propaganda”.
Kiev: Russia’s claim that it killed more than 600 Ukrainian soldiers in an attack in the eastern city of Kramatorsk has been dismissed as “propaganda” by Kiev authorities.
Russia claimed the death toll without providing evidence, claiming that the “mass missile strike” in Kramatorsk was in retaliation for a Ukrainian attack on a conscript college in Makiivka (Donetsk region) on New Year’s Day that killed at least 89 Russian soldiers.
But rejecting the claim, Serhiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for the Ukrainian army, told the BBC on Sunday night that “this is another piece of Russian propaganda”.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that more than 1,300 Ukrainian troops were housed in two buildings during the attack on Sunday.
Moscow, on the other hand, has yet to provide any proof of its claim regarding the Kramatorsk deaths.
Apart from Kramatorsk, there was more shelling in various parts of Ukraine overnight following the end of what Russian President Vladimir Putin described as a 36-hour ceasefire to allow Orthodox Christians to celebrate Christmas, according to the BBC.
At least one person was killed in the Kharkiv region, according to Ukrainian officials, and explosions were also reported in the southern cities of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol.
