During the retreat of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from Avdiivka, up to a thousand Ukrainian soldiers could have been captured, The New York Times writes, citing estimates by the military and senior Western officials, UNN reports .
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Estimates of the number of Ukrainian soldiers who have been captured and are missing vary. Two soldiers spoken to by The New York Times put the numbers at between 850 and 1,000. Western officials, according to the NYT, find this estimate accurate.
According to the newspaper's interlocutors, the loss of Avdiivka was not a major strategic defeat in itself, but the capture of a large number of prisoners "may change this scenario" as morale in the troops is falling after the failed counteroffensive, and because of this, the Ukrainian army has problems recruiting new soldiers.
Western officials believe that the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops was poorly planned and started too late, and cite the chaos that began at the positions as the reason for the capture of so many troops.
The situation, according to The New York Times, was aggravated by the fact that Russian troops surrounded the city on almost three sides. In addition, according to Ukrainian soldiers, there were problems with communication during the retreat, which led to soldiers being captured or left wounded and killed on the battlefield.
Dmytro Likhovyi, spokesman for the Tavria group of the Ukrainian armed forces, denies that hundreds of soldiers have been captured. He called it disinformation, but admitted that "a certain number" of soldiers were missing.