Russia blames 'massive,' illicit cellphone usage by its troops for Ukraine strike that killed 89

Russia's Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that 89 service members were killed in the Ukrainian attack on Makiivka in the Moscow-controlled parts of the Donetsk region, adding the main reason for the attack was unauthorized use of mobile phones by the troops.

"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 ministry said in a statement.

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

The strike just after midnight on New Year's Day — on a school that was converted into military quarters in Makiivka — has spurred anger among Russian nationalists and some lawmakers, questioning the military strategy used there. Russia previously said 63 of its soldiers were killed.

Front Burner 27:35 A look back – and ahead – at the war in Ukraine Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed US congress and is now pushing a "no-compromises" path toward ending the war in his country. But neither Ukraine nor Russia have shown any signs of compromise in the ten months of conflict, and as the fighting rages on, peace seems out of reach for now. Today on Front Burner, BBC diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams explores how far apart the Russian and Ukrainian sides are, what their standings are internationally and what that could all mean for a new year of war.

The Defence Ministry said four rockets from the U.S.-made HIMARS launchers hit the building, adding that "from the detonation of the warheads of the HIMARS rockets, the ceilings of the building collapsed."

The ministry added in its statement on the Telegram messaging app that a commission is investigating the circumstances of the attack.

The ministry also suggested that in return, it launched airstrikes launched at a "hardware concentration" near Druzhkivka railway station in Donetsk, killing up to 200 Ukrainian personnel, and destroying four HIMARS launchers and more than 800 rockets.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.

Semyon Pegov, a war correspondent awarded the Order of Courage by Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Telegram that pointing the finger at troops using mobile phones "looks like an outright attempt to smear the blame." There were other ways Ukraine could have spotted the base, he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who rarely comments on specific Ukrainian military strikes, made no mention of the attack in a video address on Tuesday.

These satellite photos show a vocational school in the Russian-occupied town of Makiivka, eastern Ukraine, on Dec. 20 and again on Jan. 3. Ukrainian forces struck the school on Jan. 3. (Planet Labs PBC/The Associated Press)

Ukraine's General Staff said Russian forces continued to concentrate on advancing in the area of Bakhmut, a city in Donetsk now largely reduced to ruins after months of fighting, while also trying to improve their positions elsewhere along the front line in that region.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol in Crimea, said on Wednesday on the Telegram messaging app that air defence systems had shot down two drones near the Belbek military airfield.

Putin plans to talk to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Interfax, the latest in a series of conversations the two leaders have had since the start of the war.

Turkey acted as mediator alongside the United Nations to establish a deal allowing grain exports from Ukrainian ports. But the chances of serious peace talks appear remote, with Moscow demanding Kyiv accept its annexation of seized land and Ukraine vowing to drive Russian troops from all its territory.