MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) - Ukraine dismissed Russian claim of mass murder of its troops in a weekend attack in the eastern city of Kramatorsk.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said on Sunday that 600 Ukrainian soldiers were killedin a wave of rocket attacks they carried out after a 36-hour Russian-proposed ceasefire ended overnight Saturday.
Multiple media outlets reported that their reporters on the ground could not find any indications to this effect.
But on Monday, the Kremlin insisted on Russian Ministry of Defense statements. Senior Ukrainian military commander Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi said 'the enemy suffered significant losses and once again retreated' as a result of counterattack by Ukrainian forces in the embattled eastern regions of Bakhmut and Soledar in Donetsk.
President Volodymyr Zelensky called them one of the bloodiest places on the front line.
Ukraine's Kharkiv region came under missile attacks and shelling on Monday. Meanwhile, the Belarusian Defense Ministry announced 17-day Russia-Belarus joint air force exercises in Belarus from January 16.
As a result of a prisoner swap Sunday by Russia and Ukraine, 100 soldiers from both sides reportedly returned to their nations.
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