By many accounts, the Ukrainian retreat was panicked and disorganized, with dozens feared left behind as Russian forces attacked in seemingly infinite waves.
Seven troops from the third Assault Brigade spoke to The Submit about their ultimate days beneath Russian assault inside the previous Ukrainian stronghold. Their accounts drive house the urgency of Ukraine’s battlefield drawback as troopers — far outnumbered by Russians — look ahead to Western weapon deliveries and troop reinforcements.
All troopers are being recognized by their name indicators, consistent with navy guidelines.
Main had simply arrived in Avdiivka within the second week of February and arrange in an previous, two-story scholar dorm when waves of Russian troops started crashing towards his unit’s place.
Finally, a bunch of well-trained Russian troopers hit them with a barrage of rocket-propelled grenades and had been quickly combating their manner via the constructing.
Russian troops backed Main into the nook of a room and screamed at him to give up. He performed alongside and begged them to not shoot as he frantically appeared for a manner out.
Different Ukrainian troops got here to his rescue with an assault of their very own and within the ensuing chaos, he scrambled out of a second-floor window to security.
By the point his unit retreated, he was in cost. So many troopers had been wounded that there was “no one extra senior left,” the 21-year-old stated.
His unit was then assigned to a tree line alongside the evacuation routes — one of many final traces of protection — to cowl the troops pulling out. Quickly the Russians had been “raining down very focused artillery fireplace on us,” he stated.
If there have been extra troops, artillery and air cowl, Ukrainian forces may have held on to the place, he stated, including, “We simply wanted one thing to battle with.”
When his group lastly left the town fully, he watched the convoy in entrance of him erupt into fireplace as artillery took them out. “It was only a convoy of individuals. A convoy of the perfect males ever. And in entrance of our eyes, this convoy was destroyed by artillery. Individuals of my age, between 20 and 30.”
“This was the highway of loss of life,” he stated, “the final one out of Avdiivka.”
Schultz arrived at his place in Avdiivka early within the morning on Feb. 9 and was working with Main contained in the two-story dorm.
The battle began to really feel actual, he stated, when a Ukrainian soldier fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a Russian infantry automobile outdoors his window, hitting the driving force. The automobile misplaced management and troopers sitting on high of it started leaping off and “we began taking them out.” For the following a number of days, “the Russians had been making an attempt to storm our positions, wave after wave after wave,” he stated.
When the retreat order got here in, he left in an armored personnel provider. There have been no home windows from which to view the surface, however from the sounds of it, a shell landed simply in entrance of their automobile and one other to the facet as they careened out of the town.
For a number of days after he deployed to Avdiivka’s coke plant — a kind of coal used to make metal — squad chief Kavkaz organized his troops to fend off the assaults on their positions inside deserted homes.
Round three-quarters of the Russians they fought appeared to have respectable navy coaching, he stated. The remainder had been “simply confused.” However solely just a little greater than half of his troops had any fight expertise themselves.
His unit was on the point of perform the order to retreat when troopers from the 2nd Presidential Brigade turned up, apparently misplaced and asking for data. They’d misplaced all communication with their commander and had no thought concerning the order to withdraw.
Time was working out, so Kavkaz rapidly organized automobiles to assist these troops pull out, together with his personal Toyota Hilux pickup truck, which the troopers later returned closely broken and with out a windshield.
Though his troops had been scheduled to go away in shifts at 4:30 a.m., the misplaced troops had been allowed to evacuate first. “These half-hour, and even an hour, had been very essential. It was an awesome threat for us,” he stated.
These small delays made a harmful state of affairs extra essential.
“I imagine the [retreat] order ought to have been given earlier,” he added. “Even 5 hours earlier would’ve made a distinction.”
Shved, a marksman, was consistently transferring between positions in Avdiivka, taking pictures so many Russian troops he stated he “misplaced rely after 10.”
Establishing in deserted civilian properties, he needed to get inventive to seek out firing positions. At one level, he stated, he perched on high of a wardrobe to get a greater shot. “I realized every part I wanted to learn about unstable positions in Avdiivka,” he stated.
The ability ranges of Russian troops weren’t “actually constant,” he stated. There have been some with little greater than uniforms and primary rifles whereas others had extra superior gear. He had a number of shut calls and after three concussions, his commander consulted a medic and prompt it could be time to go away.
By then, he stated, it felt like “somebody put a pan over my head, hit me with a baseball bat, after which punched and kicked me.”
He agreed to evacuate, however whereas being pushed out with three different wounded males, a drone hit their automobile, damaging it and giving him his fourth concussion. All of them survived.
When he arrived in Avdiivka for his first-ever fight mission on Feb. 8, Bandit, 27, crossed the prepare tracks towards a residential space and noticed “a hellscape,” he stated.
Stray canine wandered between blown-up homes. Piles of rubble had been all over the place.
A machine-gunner and native of Canada, he arrange in a one-story home and watched as Russia despatched in inexperienced troops in waves every morning, afternoon and night. They gave the impression to be of their 40s or 50s, with no protecting vests or helmets.
“My first day, I took out eight,” he stated. “They by no means got here previous my window once more.”
On their third day in the home, Russia launched a nonstop assault across the place utilizing small-arms fireplace, drones, mortars, artillery and aerial bombs — forcing them to retreat to a different gutted house close by.
A drone crashed into his window however obtained caught on a wire body, snapped into items and didn’t explode.
As soon as ordered to retreat, he and fellow troops took up positions alongside the tree line to cowl retreating Ukrainian forces.
As cluster munitions rained down, his staff chief informed them to not trouble ready for automobiles however to only depart on foot. They walked via shelling at midnight, making an attempt to maintain 5 to 10 meters between every soldier to scale back the possibilities of being noticed by the Russians — and to attenuate casualties from incoming assaults.
Once they appeared again, they noticed white phosphorus shells falling simply 500 meters behind them.
On Feb. 11, Fedya drove into Avdiivka and took up a place at a command middle within the coke plant. He was tasked with briefing arriving infantry troops and conducting reconnaissance missions to scope out fallback places. He was additionally overseeing operations for troops positioned in a big trench close to the plant.
However inside days, it turned clear that the Russians had been gaining management of key areas and would quickly have the ability to minimize off all exits from the town. He watched as they closed in on the entrance line.
When the decision got here for the retreat, he instructed sure troops on how they need to depart their positions. The plans had been then handed between troopers like a recreation of phone.
He finally left the town, driving an unarmored automobile that had beforehand been used to move ammunition and evacuate the injured. Once they realized some models had been withdrawing, the Russians ramped up their assaults to forestall troops from leaving safely.
On the highway out, he stated, “I used to be so excessive on adrenaline it hushed out all the opposite feelings.”
If that they had waited for much longer, he stated, evacuation would have turn out to be not possible. “It didn’t make sense to carry on till everybody was useless,” he stated.
Shortly earlier than he withdrew from Avdiivka, a soldier from a neighboring drone unit burst into Gerych’s command middle within the coke plant, begging for assist. It was nighttime and a strike had simply knocked over a big piece of concrete, crushing his companion.
Gerych and his fellow troops had been torn. The story may very well be true or — with enemy troops closing in on their positions — it may very well be a Russian lure. They declined to assist till they may affirm the soldier’s id. He was finally in a position to pull his wounded good friend out himself.
Hours later, as soon as they confirmed the pair had been Ukrainian, they handled the injured troop’s crushed leg, offered him with meals and cigarettes, and helped him evacuate.
When it was their flip to go away, they realized Russian forces would quickly take over their command facilities, so that they destroyed all delicate supplies: private paperwork, orders, maps, handwritten notes with coordinates, shift schedules or names — even leftover meals.
The Russians had been within the coke plant quickly afterward.