A Russian soldier has now shared his account of the situation in Avdiivka, reporting heavy losses among his comrades.
Despite throwing a huge number of troops and artillery at the Donetsk area, Vladimir Putin has so far struggled to see any significant wins.
In the video, the unnamed soldier can be seen walking a trench, describing how he had been stuck in the same position for nearly a week.
The man explained that Russian troops had been trying to encircle Ukraine’s forces in the town, encountering significant losses.
He said: “Seventy-five of us came here and now there are f***ing 14 of us here left. The rest are all 200s [dead] and 300s [wounded].
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“Look at what’s happening here. The forest belt when we entered was alive.”
Referring to Ukrainian forces, he added: “They were simply destroying us. Just destroying us.”
In the clip, translated by Ukrainian internal affairs advisor Anton Gerashchenko and shared on X (formerly Twitter), the man added he had managed to recover some of his comrades’s remains that were “simply everywhere”.
The Russian soldier continued: “We were pulled back because we could no longer carry out the combat mission. We are stormtroopers for f***k’s sake. How many of us are left in the company?”
Vladimir Putin has been plagued by the spread of social media since the start of his invasion of Ukraine.
