A Ukrainian airstrike in the Donetsk region is getting a lot of attention today. Here’s a map of the location published by the Guardian. The strike didn’t happen in the city of Donetsk but in a sister city called Makiivka.

Officially, Russia is saying 63 soldiers were killed in the attack but unofficial estimates are much higher.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that 63 service members had been killed in the strike in the city, Makiivka, which is in the Donetsk region. Ukraine claimed that “about 400” Russian soldiers had died. Neither figure could be independently verified.

A spokesman for the Russian-installed proxy government in the Donetsk region, Daniil Bezsonov, called the strike “a massive blow” and hinted at errors by Russian commanders.

“The enemy inflicted the most serious defeats in this war on us not because of their coolness and talent, but because of our mistakes,” he wrote in a post on Telegram.

The BBC offers some helpful context here, noting that even at 63 deaths this is the highest number of casualties Russia has ever admitted from a single attack.

It is extremely rare for Moscow to confirm any battlefield casualties.

But this was such a deadly attack, says the BBC’s Russia editor Steve Rosenberg, that staying silent most probably wasn’t an option.

It is the highest number of deaths acknowledged by Moscow in a single incident since the war began ten months ago.

Evidence that the death toll was much higher than the public figure put out by Russia came from pro-Russian military bloggers who were clearly angry about the incident and placed the blame on Russian commanders.

A former Russian paramilitary commander in Ukraine, Igor Girkin, confirmed the seriousness of the disaster, writing on Telegram that “many hundreds” were dead and wounded and that many “remained under the rubble.”…

Mr. Girkin, also known as Igor Strelkov, said that the vocational school had been “almost completely destroyed” because “ammunition stored in the same building” detonated in the strike. Video posted on social media showed firefighters amid the ruins of the structure and piles of steaming rubble.

The ammunition was stored “without the slightest sign of disguise,” Mr. Girkin wrote, adding that similar strikes had occurred earlier this year, albeit with fewer casualties. “Our generals are untrainable in principle,” he said.

Here’s a translation of Girkin’s statement about this. As you can see, he warns that this could happen again at any time because there are other locations like this where Russian troops are densely packed together.

Girkin on Makiivka incident – hundreds of victims, many still under the rubble. The building where they were housed also contained an ammunition cache and vehicle storage, which is why the strike was so deadly.https://t.co/9zGYWVIvM1 pic.twitter.com/tJa0lM7X0h

— Dmitri (@wartranslated) January 2, 2023

This video is the one mentioned above by the Times.

Aftermath of a #HIMARS strike in #Makiivka, #Donetsk Oblast, on a school which mobilized Russians stayed. Estimated 400 dead, 300 wounded pic.twitter.com/aBkdyCu6Oj

— Suka Putinchik (@SukaPutinchik) January 2, 2023

Here’s a before and after image of the building along with a map showing where the strike was launched.

UPDATE 2: It appears an entire Russian battalion based out of #Saratov was annihilated with this precision strike.
Rumors non-dead Russian military commanders involved in planning the party are intending to commit suicide.
Location only 12 miles from Ukrainian military positions. pic.twitter.com/xii6OktaEj

— Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) January 2, 2023

There’s also a video of the HIMARS rocket launch. Gotta say, the Christmas music and the Santa cap make this pretty creepy. This clip shows five rockets launching. According to Russia, six were launched and two were destroyed, leaving four to hit the building. But the destruction was aided by the ammo dump nearby.

UPDATE 5: Russian army was storing a significant amount of munitions at this children's school building, where hundreds of Russian soldiers were eliminated at 00:01 with a #HIMARS strike celebrating #NewYear. Explains the total & complete annihilation of the entire structure.

— Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) January 2, 2023

Other military bloggers were offering different numbers of dead and wounded as a result of the strike:

“What happened in Makiivka is horrible,” wrote Archangel Spetznaz Z, another Russian military blogger with more than 700,000 followers on Telegram.

“Who came up with the idea to place personnel in large numbers in one building, where even a fool understands that even if they hit with artillery, there will be many wounded or dead?” he wrote. Commanders “couldn’t care less” about ammunition stored in disarray on the battlefield, he said. “Each mistake has a name.”

Rybar, a popular Telegram channel with links to the Russian military, said on Monday as the clearing of debris continued that at least 70 people had died and more than 100 were injured.

The attack also sparked renewed criticism among pro-invasion bloggers and some officials over the state of Russia’s military and the decision to use civilian infrastructure to house soldiers.

“Housing personnel in buildings instead of housing them in shelters directly aids the enemy. From the situation in Makiivka it is necessary to draw the toughest conclusions,” wrote Andrey Medvedev, an ultra-conservative journalist who is deputy chairman of Moscow’s city parliament.

So the exact number is certainly higher than 63 but probably lower than the 400 claimed by Ukraine. Either way it’s another dramatic loss for Russia and for Putin literally one or two minutes into the new year. Finally, while hundreds of soldiers were being killed near Donetsk, here’s what was happening on Russian television.

During Russia's New Year special on state TV, they openly addressed the West to say, "Like it or not, Russia is enlarging!" The rest of the clip should give you a general idea as to the mood in the studio. pic.twitter.com/EcBxhEabS0

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) January 2, 2023