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Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Ukrainian authorities claimed on Monday that around 400 Russian soldiers were killed in a New Year's Eve missile strike on a town in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory of Dontesk. The Ukrainian military's Strategic Communications Department on Monday wrote on Telegram that 400 soldiers were killed and 300 more were wounded in the attack in the town of Makiivka, located about 10 miles east of the regional capital of Donetsk.
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The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged the attack Monday but provided a much lower figure for the death toll, saying instead that 63 soldiers were killed, the state-run news agency TASS reported.
Ukraine's general staff had not confirmed the strike as of mid-day Monday, but if the initial report is accurate it would mark one of the deadliest days on the battlefield involving Russian troops since that country first invaded Ukraine last February.
Russian forces were attacked at a temporary deployment point with missiles launched from U.S.-made HIMARS vehicles, the Kremlin said.
"The Kyiv regime struck with six rockets of the US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system at the temporary deployment point of one of the units of the Russian armed forces in the area of the settlement of Makeevka in the Donetsk People's Republic," the Russian defense ministry said in a statement.
"As a result of the destruction of four rockets with a high-explosive warhead of the temporary deployment point, 63 Russian servicemen were killed."
Earlier Monday, Ukraine's air defense forces claimed to have destroyed 39 Russian Shahed drones, two Orlan-10s and a KH-59 guided air missile in overnight fighting.
"On the night of January 1-2, 2023, the Russian occupiers launched a massive attack with Iranian-made Shahed-131/136 kamikaze drones," Ukrainian officials said.
"Due to combat work by the air defense of the Air Force in cooperation with the air defense of other elements of the Defense Forces of Ukraine, all 39 attack UAVs were destroyed," they claimed.
