Members of the army who participated within the operation mentioned they have been not sure what number of others had additionally been left behind — however any variety of casualties is certain to additional deteriorate morale on the entrance line as Ukrainian troops, already outgunned and outnumbered, wrestle to replenish their ranks and await additional help from the West.
Russia’s seize of Avdiivka, a strategic and now virtually completely destroyed metropolis situated about 15 miles from the Russian-occupied regional capital of Donetsk, was Moscow’s most important territorial victory since seizing Bakhmut final Might.
Diverging accounts have emerged within the days since Ukraine’s retreat, together with some that help Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s assertions that many extra Russians have been killed or wounded preventing for town than Ukrainians.
Three U.S. officers mentioned Wednesday they have been advised by Ukrainian officers that dozens of Ukrainian troopers have been left behind enemy traces as their models withdrew. The officers, talking on the situation of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the problem, mentioned earlier reviews that as much as 1,000 Ukrainians are lacking or captured seem like exaggerated.
However they acknowledged the scenario remains to be extreme, with many left behind.
One senior U.S. official mentioned their Ukrainian counterparts reported to them that not less than 25 Ukrainian troopers have been taken prisoner by the advancing Russian military. That quantity might be nearer to 100, the Ukrainians later acknowledged to U.S. officers.
Within the a hundred and tenth Brigade’s assertion, it mentioned fixed assaults from Russian plane, artillery and drones made it inconceivable “to evacuate a number of severely wounded and lifeless servicemen.”
After Russian forces surrounded a few of the troops, Ukraine tried to make contact with Russia by means of intermediaries to request that the wounded be handled and brought prisoner. The brigade mentioned Russia agreed however later posted footage exhibiting that three of the troopers have been already lifeless. Ukraine individually confirmed two of the opposite wounded troopers have been additionally killed, the brigade mentioned, and it’s nonetheless searching for details about a sixth.
The footage has circulated on Ukrainian social media, and Ukrainian media retailers reported that members of the family confirmed the deaths of their family members seen within the video.
Different members of Ukraine’s army who have been acquainted with the ultimate weeks of preventing in Avdiivka and Ukraine’s fast withdrawal from town mentioned the scenario was chaotic and poorly deliberate. The accounts counsel that the retreat, ordered by Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, who was named as Ukraine’s high commander by Zelensky this month, was a grim and harmful operation — and hardly the orderly pullback to “extra advantageous positions” that Ukrainian army officers claimed on the time.
One soldier, who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to debate the scenario, mentioned some troops have been ordered to “take positions that have been already both misplaced or destroyed.”
Fixed Russian assaults made the duty inconceivable, with Russian forces outnumbering Ukrainians 7 to 1. Russia continually bombarded the world, launching as many as 60 guided aviation bombs per day, which Ukraine couldn’t repel due to lack of antiaircraft defenses.
The soldier mentioned that troops within the a hundred and tenth Brigade have been exhausted after serving with out rotations for 2 years, and their fatigue led them to desert their positions “with out prior coordination.”
“The scenario was not saved systematically, however by randomly throwing in models,” the soldier mentioned. “They didn’t unlock the pincers that shaped round Avdiivka in time … and it gave the enemy a chance to kind a bridgehead.”
Serhiy, 41, a platoon commander within the 53rd Brigade who spoke on the situation that his final title not be used in line with army guidelines, mentioned that he left Avdiivka 4 days in the past. He mentioned all troops from his battalion managed to flee town however he understands that others “did get caught.”
If the retreat from town was even deliberate in any respect, the platoon commander mentioned, “it was deliberate very badly.”
By the point reserve troops arrived, the final evacuation street out of town was almost minimize off, Serhiy mentioned. Over the weekend, he helped evacuate pilots from the world at 5 or 6 a.m., and by 8 a.m. the street they used was already managed by Russians. His troops deliberate to return, however amid heavy rain and fast Russian advances, they have been later instructed to not reenter town, even off-road.
Because of extreme exhaustion, the commander mentioned, he couldn’t keep in mind in the event that they left Saturday or Sunday. His platoon has already redeployed to areas across the metropolis and is now preventing in “a really troublesome scenario,” he mentioned.
The hasty retreat and the lack of Avdiivka “broke the boys a bit of bit psychologically,” Serhiy mentioned. “Quite a lot of guided aerial bombs, a whole lot of aviation. Actually talking, most individuals are in shock by all of this.”
Dmytro Kukharchuk, commander of the 2nd Battalion of Ukraine’s third Separate Assault Brigade, mentioned the combat in Avdiivka “was most likely probably the most troublesome battle all through all the time of the Russian-Ukrainian warfare.”
Earlier than town fell to the Russians, his unit was answerable for holding all the left flank of Ukraine’s army there. “My folks on positions simply didn’t sleep for 9 days,” he mentioned. Nonetheless, when orders got here in to retreat, he mentioned, they evacuated all their very own wounded in addition to many from different models.
“Our unit left subsequent to final,” he mentioned. It was his understanding that almost all different troops additionally left town safely.
“After all it is likely to be that there’s so much that I don’t know,” he acknowledged. “However so far as I do know, most of them managed to get out.”
Regardless of Russia in the end seizing Avdiivka, the battle for town seems additionally to have degraded Russian forces.
Russian army blogger Andrei Morozov, from Russia’s 4th motorized rifle brigade, who glided by the decision signal Murz, reportedly died by suicide this week after posting an earlier assertion on Telegram that Russia had misplaced 16,000 troops and 300 armored automobiles within the metropolis since October.
The publish additionally praised Syrsky, the Ukrainian commander in chief, for “skillfully” pulling out of Avdiivka, and estimated that “in the most effective case for us,” Ukrainian forces misplaced 5,000 to 7,000 troopers.
A “giant legal case” ought to be opened in opposition to these accountable, Morozov wrote, alleging that St. Petersburg cellular regiment 1487 was “diminished virtually to zero.”
However as an alternative of going through inquiry, Morozov wrote, the commanders answerable for the losses “have already been appointed heroes. And also you, troopers … die in silence.”
After the state tv host and pro-Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov attacked Morozov’s publish, which appeared on Telegram weblog “They Write to Us from Ioannina,” the blogger was ordered to delete it.
Morozov deleted the publish and left a prolonged suicide message on his channel. He mentioned his commander had been warned that if the publish was not eliminated, the military would block army provides — together with shells, new tanks and armored preventing automobiles — to the unit.
“I’ll shoot myself if nobody dares to tackle this trifling matter. And so they offers you tanks and copters,” Morozov wrote. “I can’t serve below you and, on the identical time, inform the reality.”
The message added that survivors from the decimated St. Petersburg regiment “noticed all the pieces and know all the pieces, however can’t inform as a result of they’re intimidated. If I can’t change something, then you’ll have to win the warfare your self with what you’ve gotten.”
Robyn Dixon contributed to this report from Riga, Latvia.
