The Russian media source, Vazhnye Istorii, reported that it has verified a list of 68 Russian soldiers killed in a Ukrainian strike while on parade, awaiting inspection by their commanding officer, in an attack by Ukrainian forces in the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk Oblast on 20 February.
Vazhnye Istorii stated that all the soldiers belonged to military unit No. 06705 in Russia’s Zabaykalsky Krai and served in the 36th Motorized Rifle Brigade.
A member of the unit confirmed the authenticity of the list of Russians who were killed and the occurrence of the attack while the soldiers were on parade in front of Major General Oleg Moiseev, Commander of the 29th Army of the Eastern Military District.
Moiseev stated that the strike was so powerful that “everything was scattered” and “there were a lot of wounded”, some of whom were transported to a hospital in Rostov-on-Don.
Vazhnye Istorii reports that they identified the names of 66 soldiers, and two more remained unidentified.
Soldiers’ last online activity before fatal attack
Vazhnye Istorii also discovered the social media profiles of some of those who were killed – all of them were last active online on the day of the attack.
The comments under the photo of one of them, Alexander Rustamov, included images of candles and the words “God, grant peace to his soul!”
Vazhnye Istorii also found the profiles of other soldiers on the list – Alexander Pusev, Sergei Petrov, Alexei Filimonov, Vitaly Ishchenko, and Denis Sakhatsky. All of them were last active online on 20 February.
Soldier Alexei Mikhalev, who identifies himself as the deputy commander of a Special Forces battalion of the Eastern Military District, posted in his VKontakte group: “Rest in peace, my brothers-in-arms, 20 February 2024 is a date forever in my heart.”