Relatives have identified the dead bodies of three Ukrainian soldiers allegedly captured as prisoners of war in the town of Avdiivka in a Russian propaganda video, Slidsto.Info, a Ukrainian investigative media outlet, reported on Feb. 18.
Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi announced the decision to withdraw Ukrainian units from Avdiivka, an embattled city just north of Russian-occupied Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, on the night of Feb. 17.
According to the report, the relatives identified soldiers of Ukraine’s 110th Brigade - Andrii Dubnytskyi with the call sign Bayraktar, Ivan Zhyntnyk with the call sign Django, and Heorhii Pavlov with the call sign Panda. All three served at the Zenit strongpoint in Avdiivka.
The relatives said the soldiers were left behind heavily wounded while the rest of the forces retreated from the Zenit strongpoint. Ukraine’s 110th Brigade neither confirmed nor denied the claim as the verification continues, according to the report.
General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi reported on Feb. 16 that Russia was throwing “all reserves” in assaults against Avdiivka and redeploying troops from other sectors.
The same day, Tarnavskyi announced that Ukrainian troops had pulled back from Zenit, a position on Avdiivka's southeastern outskirts that had served as Ukraine's strongpoint since 2014.
Despite Russian advances, the Avdiivka campaign has been extremely costly to Russia in terms of manpower and equipment. Tarnavskyi said that Moscow had lost over 20,000 troops, 199 tanks, and 481 armored fighting vehicles since Jan. 1.
Ukraine's National Resistance Center reported that due to high casualties, Russia is using abandoned schools as morgues for its soldiers.
Russian forces have been trying to capture Avdiivka since 2014, when Russia first invaded Ukraine. Following the Russian recent assault on the city, which started in October last year, most of Avdiivka has been destroyed by urban warfare, artillery barrages, and airstrikes.
Ukraine’s military admitted on Feb. 8 that Russian forces had entered Avdiivka.