Commenting on the news that hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers could have been captured during the withdrawal from Avdiivka, Dmytro Lykhoviy, head of the public relations department of the Tavria military unit, said that the NYT had spread a Russian propaganda narrative without any substantiation. He said this on the air of a telethon, a correspondent of UNN reports.
"We were unpleasantly surprised by this publication, to put it mildly, because we gave our commentary on this issue, which was well-founded and it seemed that everything should logically fall into place. But unfortunately, either deliberately or inadvertently, the New York Times spread the Russian propaganda narrative without any substantiation. The sources they refer to are absolutely unreliable, because there are no such people and this is not a fact... We say: yes, there are prisoners, but their number is in no way hundreds," said Lykhoviy.
У 3-й ОШБр заявили про безвісти зниклих бійців в Авдіївці19.02.24, 21:09
He reminded that during the final stage of the Avdiivka defense operation, the Armed Forces did not hide or deny that a certain number of servicemen did not get in touch.
"We use this concept because it means 'they' are missing, they may be prisoners, but some of them end up on our side, some of them are in good health, possibly wounded, who then get in touch and go to their units," said Lykhoviy.
Lykhoviy noted that Russia continues its aggression, now in the information field, having suffered significant losses in the Avdiivka operation.
"It (Russian Federation - ed.) is now using not only cannon fodder, bombs and shells, but also just banal fakes, which are unfortunately spread by some reputable world media. These statements of Russian propaganda about hundreds and thousands of prisoners are complete disinformation that is not confirmed by anything," said Lykhoviy.
Addendum
The New York Times published an article stating that hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers may have been captured or are missing during the withdrawal from Avdiivka.
Tarnavsky reportedthat the withdrawal from Avdiivka went according to plan, but that at the final stage of the operation, a number of Ukrainian soldiers were captured.