Avdiivka captured in 'fairly short time', claims Russian army
Ukrainian officials have, in parallel, denied reports that Moscow's forces took 'hundreds' of Ukrainian soldiers prisoner.
Transcript
00:00 Russian Chief of the General Staff, Army General Valery Gerasimov claimed that Russian forces
00:09 seized Avdeevka within "a fairly short time" that was preceded by a long period of preparation.
00:17 Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu similarly attempted to downplay heavy Russian losses
00:21 and the difficulty of seizing Avdeevka during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir
00:26 Putin on 20 February, portraying the seizure of the town as an astounding success with
00:32 minimal losses despite the fact that the four-month-long operation resulted in an estimated 16,000
00:38 to 47,000 Russian personnel losses, says the Institute for the Study of War.
00:45 The think tank adds Russian forces recently marginally advanced northwest of Avdeevka
00:50 and have likely finished clearing operations in the town.
00:55 General battles continued northwest of Avdeevka near Stepove and Lastochkino, west of Avdeevka
01:01 near Severne and southwest of Avdeevka near Pervomaisk and Nevelsk.
01:07 Russian mill bloggers claim that Russian forces are trying to build and stabilize a new line
01:11 of defence in the Avdeevka direction.
01:14 Ukrainian officials denied a recent New York Times report that Russian forces may have
01:19 captured hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers during Ukraine's withdrawal from Avdeevka, saying
01:24 that Russian forces did capture some Ukrainian soldiers, but the reports about hundreds of
01:30 Ukrainians being taken prisoner or otherwise being unaccounted for are false.
01:36 The Institute for the Study of War has still not observed any open-source evidence of Russian
01:41 forces taking large numbers of Ukrainian forces prisoner.
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