Too Little Ammunition, Too Many Russians: The Harrowing Retreat from Avdiivka

 

 

"Within days of Stugna’s arrival, on Feb. 13, Russian troops seized the main road into the city and began working down a tree line toward a second road to the south, which was the last route out. Already Ukrainian soldiers were driving through heavy fire to bring in supplies and evacuate the wounded, but thousands of them would be stranded if the Russians seized control of that road.

Nearly surrounded, the men at the Zenith air base finally received orders to evacuate. A first group did not make it, hit by artillery fire. The main group set out on the night of Feb. 15, walking in small groups across the fields in the dark. Soldier Biliak led one group but he said they came under shell fire and he never saw the others again."

read report by Carlotta Gall and Oleksandr Chubko

Too Little Ammunition, Too Many Russians: The Harrowing Retreat from Avdiivka