The capture of Avdiivka: Russians no longer rejoice in the horrors of war as after Bakhmut and Soledar - isw

The Russians also claim that large groups of the Armed Forces were taken into the environment. This was reported in the ISW summary for February 17. Russian guidance bloggers spread the same videos with a handful of prisoners of prisoners captured under Avdiivka. This is presented as evidence that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation managed to take in the environment large groups of defense forces of Ukraine.

Russian "military" also reported that the Armed Forces allegedly suffered significant losses in Avdiivka due to unorganized departure. In turn, the head of the Ministry of Defense Sergey Shoigu stated that the Armed Forces had lost more than 1,500 people in the last day. "Activities", as a rule, are widely replicated personnel with captured Ukrainian prisoners of war, killed in battles, which attract increased attention.

The recordings have not yet been published with the official statements of the Russian Federation on the Ukrainian dead and prisoners. To support the statements that the Armed Forces had been organized poorly, there is little video with the Ukrainian military. From the fact that Russian sources were published, it cannot be concluded that the withdrawal of troops had a chaotic character.

Some of the bloggers of the Russian Federation also publish personnel, which can see how Ukrainian troops, departing, move freely in the open. The fact that no more video confirmation is published does not in itself refute the statements of the Russian Federation, but the lack of videos is very unusual in cases where Russian troops capture settlements. Persons of work of drones in the area where the 1st Army Corps of the so-called. "DNR", including Avdiivka.

But Russian troops often exaggerate Ukraine's losses to show their own success in this way. Nowadays, in the information environment of the Russian Federation no longer glorify the horrors of hostilities as they did with the Wagner PEC information resources during the capture of Sledar and Bakhmut in the winter and in the spring of 2023. However, Avdiivka is a significant area of ​​the front, and the lack of videos looks unusual if the described events actually happened as stated.