Russian Military Base in Makiivka Destroyed

A Russian military base in Makiivka was destroyed by a Ukrainian attack just after midnight on January 1. It resulted in Russia’s greatest number of casualties in a single attack since the start of the war.

• Ukrainian forces fired six rockets from an American-made himars rocket system at the base, where mobilized Russian soldiers were camped out and Russian ammunition was stored.
• Russia was able to shoot down two of the rockets, but the other four struck the building and ignited much of the stored ammunition.
• Ukraine claims that around 400 Russian soldiers were killed in the attack and another 300 were wounded.
• Russia has only confirmed 89 deaths, still the greatest number of casualties it has reported since the war began.

Shifting the blame: Some say this attack puts pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin because many of the victims were mobilized reservists, soldiers who did not volunteer to be in the war. However, the Russian Defense Ministry says the attack was only possible because servicemen violated the prohibition of mobile phones.

It is already obvious that the main reason for what happened was the switching on and massive use—contrary to the prohibition—by personnel of mobile phones in a reach zone of enemy weapons. This factor allowed the enemy to track and determine the coordinates of the soldiers’ location for a missile strike.
—Russian Defense Ministry

Prophecy says: Putin’s leadership may be criticized by Russians who are growing disillusioned with the war, but the Bible warns that he will one day command an army of 200 million soldiers. The Bible says Russia will be one of the fiercest forces in the end time. And it will largely be because its “prince” (Ezekiel 38:2) will rule this vast number of troops from multiple Eastern countries (Revelation 9:16; 16:12).

[Putin’s] track record, his nationality and his ideology show that he is fulfilling a linchpin Bible prophecy. The time frame of his rule also shows that nobody else could be fulfilling the Ezekiel 38 and 39 prophecy. … We need to watch Vladimir Putin closely. He is the “prince of Rosh” whom God inspired Ezekiel to write about 2,500 years ago!
—Gerald Flurry, Trumpet editor in chief

Learn more: Read The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia.’