The Russian military pledged to evacuate wounded Ukrainian soldiers from the Zenit strongpoint in the town of Avdiivka and provide them with assistance but instead shot five of the soldiers, Ukraine’s 110th Brigade said on Feb. 19.
The confirmation came after media reports that relatives identified the dead bodies of three soldiers of the brigade. They were left behind heavily wounded, while the rest of the forces retreated from the strongpoint, according to the reports.
The brigade said in a statement that several seriously injured and killed servicemen could not be evacuated due to continuous bombardment and the complete encirclement of Zenit.
The brigade said that Ukrainian forces had contacted organizations negotiating with Russia on prisoner exchanges to provide assistance to wounded, unarmed Ukrainian soldiers.
“The enemy informed the coordinators of this process that they agreed to evacuate our wounded, provide them with assistance, and exchange them later. Our soldiers were ordered to save their lives,” the brigade wrote on Facebook, saying that Russian troops broke their promise and shot Ukrainian soldiers.
According to Ukraine’s 110th Brigade, among the executed were Andrii Dubnytskyi, Ivan Zhyntnyk, Heorhii Pavlov, Oleksandr Zinchuk and Mykola Savosik. Information on the fate of a sixth soldier has not yet been confirmed.
Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi announced the decision to withdraw Ukrainian units from Avdiivka, an embattled city just north of Russian-occupied Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, on the night of Feb. 17.
Two days later, Maksym Zhorin, a deputy commander of Ukraine's Third Assault Brigade, said that some units of the brigade had been "completely surrounded" in Avdiivka but had managed to escape before Russian forces totally captured the town.
Russian forces have been trying to capture Avdiivka since 2014, when Russia first invaded Ukraine. Following Russia's recent assault on the city, which started in October last year, most of Avdiivka has been destroyed by urban warfare, artillery barrages, and airstrikes.
Igor Kossov
