What? Kremlin Propaganda?!!

"Nobody saw a single spot of blood anywhere. Everyone saw yesterday that no one carried out any bodies."

"It's just people cleaning up."

"[The students] are now in shock. What a great facility it was."

Yana Pristupa, deputy director, KIramatorsk vocational school

 

"[Russian bloggers] responded negatively to the Russian [Minister of Defence's] claim, pointing out that the Russian MoD frequently presents fraudulent claims and criticizing Russian military leadership for fabricating a story."

" ... Instead of holding Russian leadership responsible for the losses accountable."

Institute for the Study of War think tank

College No. 47 was damaged by a Russian rocket attack in Kramatorsk. (Source: Associated Press)

Officials at the vocational school in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk dismissed the claims by Moscow that hundreds of Ukrainian troops were killed as a result of a Russian missile strike targeting the school. A rocket that struck the school, they said on Monday, blew out windows and damaged classrooms, and that was all.

 

The school was specifically named by Moscow as the target of an attack with the Russian Defence Ministry claiming its missiles struck two temporary bases that were used to temporarily house 1,300 Ukrainian troops in the city, and that 600 of the the troops died in the attack late Saturday. 

Reporters from Associated Press who visited the site on Monday saw locals cleaning up debris, sweeping up broken glass and hurling broken furniture out into a missile crater below the four-story concrete building with most of its windows blown out. Another six-story school building appeared undamaged. No signs of a Ukrainian military presence to be seen, nor that of any casualties.

According to Yana Pristupa, the school's deputy director, before the war the school had over 300 students, most studying mechanical engineering. When Russia invaded in February, most classes moved online. None of this stopped Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov from stressing that reports from the scene aside, senior Russian officials had faith in their defense authorities' statements.

"The Defence Ministry is the main, legitimate and comprehensive source of information about the course of the special military operation", he emphasized during a conference call with reporters. Some Russian military bloggers themselves appear not to give credence to the Russian claims of targeting a site with the intention of killing hundreds of Ukrainian troops, and succeeding.

According to a Russian Defence Ministry spokesman, the Kramatorsk strikes represented retaliation for Ukraine's attack in Makiivka a week earlier, when an [Moscow-]admitted 89 Russian soldiers housed at a temporary barracks died on New Year's Eve. A casualty number far fewer than Ukraine's claim of 300 Russian soldiers killed and hundreds more injured.

Smoke rises after shelling in Soledar, the site of heavy battles with Russian forces in the Donetsk region. (Source: Associated Press)