Russia blames soldiers' mobile phone use for 89 deaths in Ukraine Himars attack

Moscow has blamed the prohibited use of mobile phones by its own soliders for a deadly Ukrainian Himars attack that it said killed 89 troops, raising the reported death toll significantly.

The Russian defence ministry had previously revealed that 63 soldiers were killed in the strike on the temporary barracks at a school in the town of Makiivka on New Year's Eve.

Ukraine has claimed that 400 were killed, in what would be one of Russia's single biggest losses of life since the start of the war.

"It is already obvious that the main reason for what happened was the switching on and massive use – contrary to the prohibition – by personnel of mobile phones in a reach zone of enemy weapons," the defence ministry said.

"This factor allowed the enemy to track and determine the coordinates of the soldiers' location for a missile strike."

The strike has spurred anger among Russian nationalists and some politicians, who have questioned Moscow's military strategy after a number of major battlefield losses and retreats in recent months.

Semyon Pegov, a prominent Russian war correspondent awarded the Order of Courage by Vladimir Putin in late 2022, said that Ukraine could have been able to locate the troops via drones and intelligence, not necessarily through mobile phones.

"The story of 'mobiles' is not very convincing," he wrote on the Telegram messaging app. "I rarely say this - but this is the case when it would probably be better to remain silent, at least until the end of the investigation. As such it looks like an outright attempt to smear the blame."

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