The preventing had change into more and more ferocious final month on the Zenith air-defense base a mile south of Avdiivka, the place for years an organization of Ukrainian troopers had defended the southern approaches to the town.
Russian troops had moved up on their flanks and have been pounding them from all sides with tank, artillery and mortar hearth, smashing their defenses and wounding males.
“On daily basis we tried to repel enemy assaults,” stated Senior Soldier Viktor Biliak, a 26-year-old with the one hundred and tenth Mechanized Brigade, who had spent 620 days defending the bottom. “All of the fortifications have been being destroyed and there was no risk to construct new ones.”
Troopers interviewed after their retreat described an uneven four-month battle below a relentless onslaught of Russian artillery and glide bombs that destroyed buildings and broke by deep concrete bunkers. Because the Ukrainians took casualties they turned more and more outnumbered by the Russians assaulting the town, who broke by at two strategic factors and rapidly seeded areas with fighters.
The autumn of the town, when it got here in mid-February, was brutal and quick, occurring in lower than per week.
For 2 weeks, as troopers warned they may very well be overrun by Russian forces, commanders advised them to maintain holding their positions, a delay that value lives, Soldier Biliak stated. Some items have been crumbling below Russian hearth. One firm pulled again to the Zenith base after dropping its positions.
The ultimate retreat was harmful and expensive, as Russian artillery fired continuously on the roads main out of the town. Many troopers died alongside the best way.
The largest losses got here within the middle of the town from the heavy Russian aerial bombardment, stated Shaman, 36, a commander of the twenty fifth Separate Battalion, who was monitoring his items from a command submit. Some brigades misplaced contact with items below the bombing. A gaggle retreated to a home and have been killed when a glide bomb hit it, stated Shaman, who like others interviewed recognized himself by his name signal for safety causes.
The seize of Avdiivka was the Russians’ most vital acquire in 9 months and a blow to Ukrainian forces battling shortages of ammunition and males.
As they regrouped within the villages and coaching grounds after their retreat from Avdiivka, Ukrainian troopers expressed little question why they misplaced the town, a holdout on the jap entrance that had been a goal of Russian assaults for 10 years.
“It was the dearth of ammunition,” stated Shaman, whose battalion was deployed to Avdiivka in October when the Russians started a brand new offensive towards the town. “No query.”
With enough artillery Ukrainian troops may have held the town, he stated, by hitting Russian provides and logistics behind strains, and stopping reinforcements from coming in.
One soldier, Roman, 48, from the Territorial Protection Pressure, spent three months in Avdiivka together with his unit final spring. “It was tough,” he stated. “We didn’t have assist.” The unit was despatched in February to assist defend the Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant, which served as a headquarters for the Ukrainian navy on the sting of the town.
He choked up when describing the casualties his unit had suffered within the battle. “We had 20 within the unit, eight stay,” he stated. Of his firm of 86, solely 28 have been left, he added. There isn’t a official depend for Ukrainian casualties in Avdiivka, however commanders stated a whole lot have been seemingly misplaced within the metropolis’s fall.
Ukrainian officers say Russian casualties have been far larger, as their repeated assaults have been met with Ukrainian artillery hearth and drone strikes, leaving fields and trenches strewn with our bodies and damaged armor.
However the Russian troops saved coming and succeeded in reaching the perimeters of the town from the north and south. By the tip of January they have been poised to penetrate the residential areas. They broke in at two essential locations, from the northeast throughout the railway line, and within the south by tunneling by sewers to assault Ukrainian positions from the rear.
“That was an alarm bell,” stated Soldier Biliak.
Troopers on the Zenith base started urging their commanders to request to withdraw, he stated. They have been advised to attend.
Inside the town Russia was hurling as much as 80 to 100 glide bombs, recognized by the acronym KAB, day by day. A single warplane would drop 4 half-ton bombs, which exploded in fast succession, gouging out huge craters within the earth or flattening multistory concrete buildings.
“When a KAB falls, you wonder if the concrete will fall on you and so they won’t be able to dig you out,” a soldier, whose name signal is Patrick, 42, stated. “We noticed that occur.”
Russian drones have been continuously hovering above the roads. A medic, name signal Malyi, 23, was racing out of the town with a wounded soldier at some point with a Russian drone pursuing him. The drone miraculously hit the spare tire on the again of the automotive and bounced off. Malyi and his wounded passenger survived.
“It’s life or loss of life on the market,” he stated.
By early February Russian troops have been near encircling the town and slicing the final two roads out. On Feb. 9, Dmytro, 36, the commander of Stugna, a navy intelligence unit, was ordered to Avdiivka to assist push again the Russian infiltration and safe the primary highway into the town for the withdrawal of troops.
The unit joined the third Assault Brigade which had arrived per week earlier however they discovered the Russian troops had unfold by the neighborhood so quick that their plans have been out of date earlier than they might use them. “The state of affairs was altering by the hour,” Dmytro stated.
Inside days of Stugna’s arrival, on Feb. 13, Russian troops seized the primary highway into the town and started working down a tree line towards a second highway to the south, which was the final route out. Already Ukrainian troopers have been driving by heavy hearth to usher in provides and evacuate the wounded, however 1000’s of them can be stranded if the Russians seized management of that highway.
Practically surrounded, the boys on the Zenith air base lastly obtained orders to evacuate. A primary group didn’t make it, hit by artillery hearth. The principle group set out on the evening of Feb. 15, strolling in small teams throughout the fields at the hours of darkness. Soldier Biliak led one group however he stated they got here below shell hearth and he by no means noticed the others once more.
By daybreak a number of dozen males regrouped by some cottages on the sting of the town. It was foggy, which meant there have been no drones flying, and though that they had no orders to take action, they continued falling again towards the one highway out.
The Russians made six makes an attempt to grab management of the tree line, Dmytro stated, and his items repelled them every time with artillery. However ultimately the Ukrainians couldn’t staunch the movement of Russians.
He may ship 4 to eight males as reinforcements, however he stated the Russians fielded teams of 30 individuals at a time. “To cease a gaggle 30 individuals, you would wish 50 shells,” he stated. “You want 5 shells to right the fireplace and we will solely use 10 shells.”
Nonetheless Stugna held the highway at two junctions and Ukrainian troops steadily withdrew from the town, on autos and on foot, largely below cowl of darkness. Soldier Biliak caught a journey with different wounded in an armored automobile within the early hours on Feb 16. The final items from Zenith got here out the following day.
However they left six males behind — 5 wounded males and a helper — who have been captured and killed by Russian troops, Ukrainian officers later stated. “There have been six. Our guys who remained. We must always bear in mind there have been 3 times extra mendacity useless and on the highway,” Soldier Biliak stated.
The highway led by the fields and was below fixed hearth. “You possibly can nonetheless sprint by with autos, however most got here out on foot,” Dmytro stated.
On the chemical plant the twenty fifth Separate Battalion have been the final go away, simply earlier than nightfall on Feb. 17, heading north on foot.
“There have been solely 21 of us left to protect the entire plant,” stated Staf, 36, a tall soldier with an ill-fitting helmet. “They have been coming from three sides,” he stated. “They have been inside firearms’ vary,” one other soldier stated. “They have been shut sufficient to throw a grenade.”
The subsequent day, on their seventh try, the Russians took the tree line and minimize the decrease highway, Dmytro stated. “A day earlier,” he stated, “it could have been chaos.”
Marc Santora contributed reporting from Donetsk area and Kyiv, Ukraine.
