The announcement of higher casualties from the Makiivka strike did not go unnoticed by fresh criticism of the Russian military command, which was slammed for its “incompetence” by Russian correspondents and commentators on Monday and Tuesday.

The head of the RT broadcaster, Margarita Simonian, the spearhead of international Kremlin propaganda, called for the names of the Russian officers involved and “the extent of their responsibility” to be made public.

“It is time to understand that impunity does not lead to social harmony. Impunity leads to new crimes. And thus to public dissent,” she wrote on Telegram.

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Reactions in social networks

Many Russians have called for a transparent investigation into the circumstances of the strike on social networks. “They will pull it out and, in the worst case, put it on someone’s back,” fears a user of the VK network.

“Not the cellphones and their owners are to blame, but the banal negligence of the commanders, who certainly didn’t even try to move the staff” out of the building, for its part, the group “Notes from a veteran” berated on Telegram, which has 200,000 subscribers .

Unusually in Russia, where authorities often remain discreet about military casualties in Ukraine, around 200 people gathered in Samara (centre) on Tuesday, with the authorities’ approval, where some of the killed soldiers came from to mourn the dead at an Orthodox church Ceremony.

“It’s very difficult, it’s scary. But we can’t be broken. Grief unites us,” said Ekaterina Kolotovkina, leader of a group of soldiers’ wives, calling for “revenge.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet publicly responded.