Russia has been accused of propaganda after boasting it killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers which, if true, would be the single-largest loss of Ukrainian troops since the invasion.

Moscow’s Defence Ministry claimed it wiped out hundreds of servicemen in a revenge strike — retaliation for Ukraine’s deadly hit last week on a Russian barracks.

Russia’s rocket attack was on two dorms in the city of Kramatorsk in the disputed Donetsk region which has become the scene of some of the fiercest fighting in recent weeks.

But Ukraine says no-one was hurt and told the BBC the Kremlin’s death-toll brag was “another piece of Russian propaganda”.

Media attempting to verify Russia’s claims have found no obvious signs of casualities at the location.

Reuters reporters on Sunday (local time) visited the two college dormitories Russia said had been temporarily housing Ukrainian servicemen close to the front line at the time of the overnight strike.

Neither appeared to have been directly hit by missiles or seriously damaged. There were no obvious signs that soldiers had been living there and no sign of bodies or traces of blood, said Reuters.

Some of the windows were broken at Hostel No. 47, which stood by a courtyard that had a big crater in it.

The other building named by Russia’s defence ministry, Hostel No. 28, was entirely intact. A crater lay about 50 metres away closer to some garages.

Kramatorsk’s mayor earlier said there had been no casualties.

Russia’s defence ministry, in a statement, said the strike was a revenge operation for a deadly Ukrainian attack last week on a Russian barracks.

Kyiv claimed it killed 400 Russian soldiers in that attack, but Russia admitted to 89 lives lost.

The graves of Russian soldiers killed in Makiivka. Photo: Getty

Russia’s Defence Ministry said Moscow had used what it called reliable intelligence to target the Ukrainian troops. More than 700 Ukrainian troops had been housed in one hostel and more than 600 in another, it said.

“As a result of a massive missile strike on these temporary deployment points of Ukrainian army units, more than 600 Ukrainian servicemen were destroyed,” the defence ministry said.

Ukraine was believed to have stopped housing troops close together in single facilities after a deadly Russian missile strike on a base in western Ukraine in March which killed dozens.

The practice of housing soldiers all together came into focus too after the Ukrainian strike on Makiivka this month with Russian military commanders subject to fierce criticism inside Russia for not dispersing their forces.

Russia ends ‘ceasefire’

Meanwhile Russian troops have been bombing the frontline during a self-declared ceasefire which Ukraine refused to recognise.

President Vladimir Putin ordered a 36-hour ceasefire along the line of contact from Friday at midday to observe Russia and Ukraine’s Orthodox Christmas, which fell on Saturday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends an Orthodox Christmas mass in the Cathedral of the Annunciation at the Kremlin. Photo: Getty

Ukraine rejected the truce, and the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Russian troops had shelled dozens of positions and settlements along the front line on Saturday.

Ukrainian officials reported blasts in regions that make up the broader Donbas region — the war’s frontline where fighting has been raging for months, and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.

Putin ‘love and care’ medal

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been awarded a medal for “patriotic care and love” towards Serbia.

The award was revealed in absentia by Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, during a ceremony marking the Bosnian autonomous Serb Republic’s national holiday.

The Serb Republic is a region that makes up Bosnia along with the autonomous Bosniak-Croat Federation.

Mr Dodik, the region’s separatist president who has long favoured ties with Russia over those with the West, praised Mr Putin for being a reliable support to the Serb Republic and said he would present the medal to him at their next meeting.

“Thanks to the position of Vladimir Putin and the strength of the Russian Federation, the voice and position of Republika Srpska has been heard and respected,” he said.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mr Dodik had tried to block efforts of the tripartite presidency for Bosnia to join European Union sanctions against Russia.

At the same time, Russian envoys have supported Mr Dodik in his secessionist moves aimed at weakening the central government.

Last month, Russia denounced the EU for granting Bosnia a candidate status to join the bloc. It has earlier warned that it would consider Bosnia’s moves towards joining NATO to be a “hostile act”.