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The combating had develop 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.
“Every day we tried to repel enemy assaults,” mentioned 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 the fortifications have been being destroyed and there was no risk to construct new ones.”
Soldiers interviewed after their retreat described an uneven four-month battle beneath a relentless onslaught of Russian artillery and glide bombs that destroyed buildings and broke via deep concrete bunkers. As the Ukrainians took casualties they grew to become more and more outnumbered by the Russians assaulting the town, who broke via at two strategic factors and shortly seeded areas with fighters.
The fall of the town, when it got here in mid-February, was brutal and quick, occurring in lower than per week.
For two weeks, as troopers warned they might be overrun by Russian forces, commanders instructed them to maintain holding their positions, a delay that value lives, Soldier Biliak mentioned. Some items have been crumbling beneath Russian hearth. One firm pulled again to the Zenith base after dropping its positions.
The remaining retreat was harmful and dear, as Russian artillery fired continually on the roads main out of the town. Many troopers died alongside the way in which.
The greatest losses got here within the middle of the town from the heavy Russian aerial bombardment, mentioned 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 beneath the bombing. A bunch retreated to a home and have been killed when a glide bomb hit it, mentioned 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 scuffling with shortages of ammunition and males.
As they regrouped within the villages and coaching grounds after their retreat from Avdiivka, Ukrainian troopers expressed little doubt 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,” mentioned Shaman, whose battalion was deployed to Avdiivka in October when the Russians started a brand new offensive in opposition to the town. “No query.”
With ample artillery Ukrainian troops might have held the town, he mentioned, by hitting Russian provides and logistics behind traces, and stopping reinforcements from coming in.
One soldier, Roman, 48, from the Territorial Defense Force, spent three months in Avdiivka along with his unit final spring. “It was troublesome,” he mentioned. “We didn’t have help.” 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 warfare. “We had 20 within the unit, eight stay,” he mentioned. Of his firm of 86, solely 28 have been left, he added. There is not any official rely for Ukrainian casualties in Avdiivka, however commanders mentioned lots of have been probably misplaced within the metropolis’s fall.
Ukrainian officers say Russian casualties have been far greater, 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.
But 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 vital locations, from the northeast throughout the railway line, and within the south by tunneling via sewers to assault Ukrainian positions from the rear.
“That was an alarm bell,” mentioned Soldier Biliak.
Soldiers on the Zenith base started urging their commanders to request to withdraw, he mentioned. They have been instructed to attend.
Inside the town Russia was hurling as much as 80 to 100 glide bombs, identified by the acronym KAB, every single 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 ponder whether 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, mentioned. “We noticed that occur.”
Russian drones have been continually 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 automobile and bounced off. Malyi and his wounded passenger survived.
“It’s life or demise on the market,” he mentioned.
By early February Russian troops have been near encircling the town and chopping 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 principle 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 via the neighborhood so quick that their plans have been out of date earlier than they may use them. “The scenario was altering by the hour,” Dmytro mentioned.
Within days of Stugna’s arrival, on Feb. 13, Russian troops seized the principle 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 via heavy hearth to herald provides and evacuate the wounded, however hundreds of them could be stranded if the Russians seized management of that highway.
Nearly surrounded, the lads on the Zenith air base lastly obtained orders to evacuate. A primary group didn’t make it, hit by artillery hearth. The principal group set out on the evening of Feb. 15, strolling in small teams throughout the fields at midnight. Soldier Biliak led one group however he mentioned they got here beneath 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 they’d 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 mentioned, and his items repelled them every time with artillery. But in the long run the Ukrainians couldn’t staunch the circulate of Russians.
He might ship 4 to eight males as reinforcements, however he mentioned the Russians fielded teams of 30 folks at a time. “To cease a bunch 30 folks, you would wish 50 shells,” he mentioned. “You want 5 shells to appropriate the hearth and we will solely use 10 shells.”
Nevertheless Stugna held the highway at two junctions and Ukrainian troops steadily withdrew from the town, on automobiles and on foot, largely beneath cowl of darkness. Soldier Biliak caught a trip with different wounded in an armored car within the early hours on Feb 16. The final items from Zenith got here out the following day.
But they left six males behind — 5 wounded males and a helper — who have been captured and killed by Russian troops, Ukrainian officers later mentioned. “There have been six. Our guys who remained. We ought to bear in mind there have been 3 times extra mendacity dead and on the highway,” Soldier Biliak mentioned.
The highway led via the fields and was beneath fixed hearth. “You might nonetheless sprint via with automobiles, however most got here out on foot,” Dmytro mentioned.
At 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,” mentioned Staf, 36, a tall soldier with an ill-fitting helmet. “They have been coming from three sides,” he mentioned. “They have been inside firearms’ vary,” one other soldier mentioned. “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 mentioned. “A day earlier,” he mentioned, “it might have been chaos.”
Marc Santora contributed reporting from Donetsk area and Kyiv, Ukraine.
