Ukraine’s military leaders are facing mounting criticism over a recent Russian missile strike that allegedly inflicted heavy casualties on Ukrainian soldiers, BBC News reports.
Ukrainian media and Russian military bloggers report more than 20 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed at an award ceremony on Friday close to the southern front lines.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that the incident “could have been avoided.”
Criminal proceedings have been initiated. Every soldier in the combat zone – in the enemy’s line of fire and aerial reconnaissance – knows how to behave in the open, how to ensure safety.
Some Ukrainian soldiers and military experts believe that the ceremony should not have taken place in the strike risk zone. They claim that the officers should have known that Russian drones were constantly monitoring the activities of Ukrainian troops near the front line.
On Saturday, Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov confirmed earlier media reports about the death of Ukrainian soldiers from the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade “Zakarpattia (Transcarpathia).” He also ordered a “full investigation” into what he called a “tragedy.”
Three days of mourning have been declared in Transcarpathia, the westernmost part of Ukraine, where many of the dead are believed to originate from.
Kyiv did not publicly disclose the location of the strike, but Ukrainian media reports suggested it was a village near the front line. Russian bloggers reported that it was the village of Dymytrovo (renamed to Zarichne by Ukraine in 2016).
A video of a Ukrainian soldier, presumably from a nearby brigade, publicly criticising officers for organising the award ceremony has appeared online. The unnamed soldier claims that frontline villages are being hit “methodically and regularly.”
As a result of this [ceremony] line-up, many Ukrainian defenders and civilians died.
On Saturday, Serhiy Sternenko, a well-known Ukrainian volunteer, suggested that the commander who organised the ceremony should be jailed for life.
“There have already been many similar incidents. Unfortunately. Without systemic changes, there will be more such incidents.”
A number of social media users in Ukraine have demanded that the organisers of the award ceremony be punished.
Who gathered them there, why is this person’s name being withheld? Whose initiative was it? Are these people already under investigation?
“How was it possible to gather ALL our warriors in one place?”
