Dozens of Russian soldiers feared dead as Ukraine strikes Moscow-controlled region

Ukraine killed dozens of Russian servicemen using U.S.-supplied artillery to hit a base in an occupied part of the country on New Years Eve, Russia's Defense Ministry said on Monday.

Sixty-three servicemen died after 4 HIMARS artillery warheads struck a “provisional base,” the Russian Defense Ministry said Monday in a Telegram post. Two projectiles were shot down, the statement added.

Earlier, a senior Russian-backed official in occupied Donetsk said “vocational school” in the city of Makiivka had been hit by U.S.-supplied HIMARS.

“A significant number of dead and wounded,” Daniil Bezsonov, said in a Telegram post on Sunday night.

While Ukraine has not taken responsibility for the attack, its armed forces posted a cryptic message on Telegram Sunday night: “As a result of 'careless handling of heating devices,' neglecting security measures, and smoking in an unspecified place, Santa packed about 400 corpses of Russian servicemen in bags.”

"About 300 more have wounds of varying degrees of severity," the account added.