How many of them were captured in Avdeevka?

The New York Times writes about hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers who were captured while leaving Avdiivka. The Ukrainian Armed Forces categorically denies this.

As they say in material NYT, “hundreds of Ukrainian military personnel could have been captured or gone missing” when Ukrainian troops left Avdiivka. The publication refers to “two soldiers who know about the retreat of Ukrainian troops.” According to them, we are talking about 850-1000 soldiers. “Western officials said the figure appears to be accurate.”

The Tavria group of Ukrainian troops said that the authors of the publication disseminated the Russian narrative without any justification. Head of Tavriya’s public relations department Dmitry Likhovoy said: quotes “UP”:

“We were unpleasantly surprised by this publication, because we gave our commentary on this matter, which was justified and it seemed that everything should logically fall into place. But, unfortunately, either deliberately or in passing, the authors of the New York Times disseminated the Russian narrative without any justification . Those sources they refer to are absolutely untenable, because there are no such people, and this is not a fact. During the final stage of the Avdiivka defensive operation, the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not hide, did not deny that a number of military personnel did not get in touch. They were missing in action. “, they may be prisoners, but some of them turn out to be on our side, who then get in touch and go to their units. Russian propaganda statements about hundreds and thousands of prisoners are complete disinformation, which is not confirmed by anything.”

He added that Russian soldiers were also captured by Ukrainian troops. Let us recall that on February 17, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexander Syrsky said on the withdrawal of Ukrainian units from Avdeevka. On the same day, the 3rd Special Operations Brigade reported that most of the Ukrainian military had left Avdiivka, and there was no information about their mass capture.

In an interview with the Ukrainian Air Force service, the deputy commander of the Third Separate Assault Brigade, Rodion Kudryashov, called exit from the operational environment “one of the best maneuvers in the art of war.” The brigade was sent to Avdiivka at the last stage, when Ukrainian forces needed immediate reinforcements, including assistance with a possible withdrawal.

Kudryashov explained under what difficult conditions the retreat took place: the ratio of forces with the enemy was 1 to 11, there was not enough ammunition, the Russians dropped guided bombs that burned everything around. “In some cases, the soldiers of the 3rd Brigade fought 360 degrees,” the soldier said.

However, according to him, the Russians were unable to close the ring, although they actually surrounded some of the Ukrainian units. Despite the difficult retreat, Kudryashov considers it successful: “Due to successful planning and the qualities of the military, we did not allow the ring to close and opened up the rings that the Russians were creating inside the city.”

On the day of leaving Avdeevka, the commander of the Tavria Armed Forces of Ukraine group, Alexander Tarnavsky, said that at the final stage of the operation, several Ukrainian servicemen were captured.

The Ukrainian side has not yet officially announced the number of military personnel missing during the retreat from Avdiivka, since verification is still ongoing. Speaker of the Tavria Operational-Strategic Group of Troops Dmitry Likhovoy said on Radio Liberty:

“I have data that is close to concrete, because we are dealing with them, but we are not calling them yet, because all verification has not yet been completed. Some people, some military personnel come to our side… some, as “Individual positions, in particular, regarding the Zenit position, verification there also continues and we cannot say a specific figure so as not to be accused of misinformation. Telling the truth is a little more difficult than throwing in fakes, it needs to be verified.”

However, he noted that we are not talking about hundreds of prisoners or missing people, as The New York Times previously reported, citing anonymous Ukrainian soldiers:

“When the New York Times uses the definition of “hundreds,” we say that the count is not hundreds. In this case, unfortunately, they play along with Russian propaganda and do not want to hear arguments, and do not want to take into account the facts that they are told, which they are provided with. They refer to anonymous sources who cannot be informed in this sense, and these sources also disseminate Russian narratives that are thrown in as a continuation of the offensive operation in Avdievka.”

One senior US official said at least 25 Ukrainian soldiers were captured by the advancing Russian army. That number could be around 100, as the Ukrainians later admitted to US officials, the Washington Post notes.

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