Strike or not? Russia's clarification on Kramatorsk strike, with ‘confidence'

Russia-Ukraine War: There were no obvious signs of casualties, Reuters reported after Russia claimed that the strike had killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers.

The Kremlin asserted that it was confident that Russia's defence ministry's statement that 600 Ukrainian servicemen were killed in an attack on the city of Kramatorsk.

Russia-Ukraine War: Municipal workers clear the rubble on the roof of a college which was damaged by a Russian rocket attack in Kramatorsk, Ukraine.(AP)

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"The Kremlin has absolute confidence, I would like to remind you of the President's words that the main source of information is the Ministry of Defence", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. This came amid reporting that the attacked missed its target. There were no obvious signs of casualties, Reuters reported after Russia claimed that the strike had killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers.

Russia did not, however, state when when exactly the strike had taken place as the Russian intelligence said that it had "over the past 24 hours" located more than 1,300 Ukrainian troops in two buildings in Kramatorsk.

Earlier, Russia said that it had carried out a devastating "retaliatory strike" in eastern Ukraine on Sunday following a recent deadly attack on its troops.

"More than 600 Ukrainian servicemen were killed" by a missile strike on troops stationed in two buildings used as barracks in Kramatorsk, Russian defence ministry said. The strike came after Ukraine's New Year's Eve missile attack in the eastern Ukrainian town of Makiivka, Moscow said.

However, the claim was rejected by Ukraine's armed forces.

"This information is as true as the data that they have destroyed all of our HIMARS," Sergiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the eastern group of the Ukrainian armed forces said as per AFP.