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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