“Yes, sadly it’s true.” Natalia exhales with relief because her husband is now in Kyiv and has managed to leave Avdiivka, the eastern Ukrainian town where Ukrainian forces have pulled back in recent days. Yet she laments the death of several wounded soldiers who could not be evacuated and died after the city fell into Russian hands. According to Kyiv’s armed forces, Kremlin troops executed at least six Ukrainian soldiers who could not be pulled out due to the severity of their injuries. “I think it could have been prevented if the commanders had told them they would retreat these positions first,” Natalia told El Periódico de Cataluña, part of the Prensa Ibérica group, adding that, although she doubts it, she wants an investigation into how it happened.
In recent hours, testimonies from Ukraine have described the Ukrainian withdrawal from Avdiivka. Some accounts come from eyewitness Viktor Biliak. In a stark Instagram post, Biliak recalls a commander telling him that in the evacuation during the withdrawal people had to be left behind. “So what, there will be no evacuation?” the soldier asked. “No, leave behind the 300 wounded and burn everything,” the commander allegedly replied, a claim later carried by CNN.
Andrii Dubnytskyi’s case has also surfaced. In an interview with the Ukrainian outlet Slidstvo.info, his wife Liudmyla said: “We spoke at 10 in the morning on Thursday. He was wounded in the groin, unstable, trying to joke, then he cried. Then we exchanged messages… The last message came at 12, that he would be captured.”
Acuerdo incumplido
Ukraine confirmed on Sunday the death of six soldiers. The Office of the Prosecutor General says they belonged to a mechanized brigade of the armed forces and were severely injured. The authority opened an investigation into possible war crimes, alleging that killing prisoners of war violates the Geneva Conventions. Kyiv also accuses Russia of breaching a pact made during the withdrawal to ensure humane treatment for the wounded.
A video circulating on Russian social networks shows several soldiers lying on the ground, soaked in blood with their hands bound behind their backs. Ukrainian sources identified the deceased through tattoos, clothing, and visible objects in the footage.
Avdiivka has been under pressure since pro-Russian separatists took Donetsk province in 2014. However, since October 2023, according to the Institute for the Study of War, the city has faced a focused offensive. The battle drew attention from Vladimir Putin, who highlighted Russian offensive efforts near Avdiivka to present a victory to the Russian public and justify the ongoing war in Ukraine, as noted by ISW.
Momento delicado
The city’s capture came at a sensitive moment for Ukrainian forces, just days before Oleksandr Syrskyi was appointed as the new commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Syrskyi replaced Valerii Zaluzhnyi, a popular general who had led since the early stages of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy maintains that the decision to withdraw from this Donbas town was taken “to save lives.” In this context, Ukrainian military blogger Yurii Butusov pointed out that the exact circumstances of the deaths of the wounded remain uncertain. “These wounded could not move on their own, and there were no evacuation vehicles available. With the entire Zenit sector sealed off, no vehicle could pass to evacuate them,” he noted.
Similarly, the 110th Separate Mechanized Brigade, to which the wounded belonged, confirmed that there had been negotiations with Russian forces and an agreement that they would be exchanged for other detainees. “They agreed to evacuate our wounded and provide them with assistance, and then replace them with other POWs,” the brigade wrote. A video announcing the grim news quickly circulated on social media.
Russian troops have been called “terrorists and war criminals who fired at the unarmed and wounded,” by brigade leaders, who pledged retaliation for every soldier executed.