Russia says it kills hundreds in revenge strike in Ukraine

Bloomberg

Russia’s defense ministry claimed a major strike on Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region, killing hundreds of Ukrainian servicemen in retaliation for the New Year’s Day rocket attack on Makiyivka that killed at least 89 Russian troops. There was no immediate response from Ukraine.
The ceasefire unilaterally
declared by Moscow over Orthodox Christmas ended on January 7. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian troops had violated Vladimir Putin’s order, continuing to shell the town of Bakhmut and other Ukrainian positions. Ukraine’s general staff said civilian infrastructure was targeted by multiple missile strikes.
Ukraine announced sanctions against 119 mostly Russian cultural figures, including soprano Anna Netrebko and various show business personalities and propagandists. Ukraine’s prime minister said Russia’s invasion has created a minefield the size of the UK.
Ukraine’s forces repelled Russian attacks near 16 settlements in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the General Staff said on Facebook. Russian forces continue offensive in the direction of Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Lyman.
Ukrainian aviation delivered 21 strikes at Russian strongholds and three strikes at Russian anti-aircraft complexes. Three Russian reconnaissance drones were downed.
A UN mission delivering humanitarian aid to Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region came under Russian shelling, regional governor Oleksandr Starukh said. The outskirts of Zaporizhzhia were also shelled. A civilian was killed in missile strikes on the town of Merefa in the Kharkiv region.
Russia’s defense ministry said it carried out a “retaliatory operation” in the Donetsk region to seek revenge for Ukraine’s rocket strike on Makiyivka on New Year’s Day that, by official account, killed at least 89 Russian troops.
“More than 600 Ukrainian servicemen were killed” in a strike on troops stationed in two buildings in Kramatorsk, the ministry said on Telegram. The report couldn’t be verified, and Ukrainian officials haven’t commented
Mild weather, an expanded array of suppliers and efforts to reduce demand are taking the sting out of Vladimir Putin’s plan to squeeze Europe by weaponising energy. Gas reserves are still nearly full, and prices have tumbled to pre-war levels.
“The danger of a complete economic meltdown, a core meltdown of European industry, has — as far as we can see — been averted,” said German Economy Minister Robert Habeck.
Russia’s war has resulted in a minefield of some 250,000 square kilometres (96,000 square miles), Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
Kremlin troops have bolstered defensive fortifications in central Zaporizhzhia Oblast in anticipation of a major Ukrainian counteroffensive either in northern Luhansk or in Zaporizhzhia, the UK defense ministry said in a Twitter Update.