Ukraine reveals worst military loss of war after attack on barracks

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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed Monday that 87 soldiers died last week in a Russian strike on a barracks housing troops, making it the largest military loss from a single attack in the ongoing war. 

The deadly incident happened on Tuesday, May 17, in the town of Desna, just north of Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv, according to Reuters. 

"Today we completed work at Desna. In Desna, under the rubble, there were 87 casualties. Eighty-seven corpses," Zelenskyy was quoted as saying Monday. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy displayed on a screen as he addresses the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, from Kyiv on Monday, May 23. (AP/Markus Schreiber)

Ukraine earlier said only eight people died in the attack, but the new figure of 87 makes it the highest loss of life in a single attack from the war, Reuters reports. 

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Russia claims it hit the Ukraine military training base with long-range missiles. 

As the war rages on though, Russia is also losing a large number of troops, according to the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense. 

A uniformed soldier stands on the edge of a crater in the middle of a courtyard in Desna, Ukraine, on Tuesday, May 17.

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"In the first three months of its ‘special military operation’, Russia has likely suffered a similar death toll to that experienced by the Soviet Union during its nine-year war in Afghanistan," the agency tweeted Monday, referencing the 15,000 Soviet forces believed to be lost in that conflict. 

"A combination of poor low-level tactics, limited air cover, a lack of flexibility, and a command approach which is prepared to reinforce failure and repeat mistakes has led to this high casualty rate, which continues to rise in the Donbas offensive," it added.