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Reporting From Ukraine:
Note: other versions of this report are found elsewhere on FR, but this is guaranteed to be the complete transcript - unlike the others.
https://www.youtube.com/@RFU

[ Shocking Footage Reals The Real Cost Russians Paid For Avdiivka ]

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Day 725: Feb 18

Today, the most important developments are taking place in the Avdiivka direction.

Last time, I told you that Ukrainian forces completed the first stage of the withdrawal process by leaving all isolated positions that stretched the front line and decreased the overall number of troops in Avdiivka by 30%.

This was the moment when the intensity of clashes reached unimaginable heights, as Russians were ordered to close the circle as fast as possible before Ukrainians managed to escape.

According to Ukrainian fighters, they hadn’t even seen such big Russian assault units even during the Battle for Bakhmut, where the Wagner Group used cheap lives of their prisoners en masse.

However, since the information about 30% of evacuated personnel was primarily based on reports from Russian soldiers, their observations and estimates were lagging behind, and in reality, Ukrainians had already completed the second stage of withdrawal and were mostly located in the residential area.

That is why the Ukrainian fighters from the famous 3rd Assault Brigade were not conducting assaults directed into the town, and focused on preventing Russians from advancing into the fields. Russian soldiers here aimed to cut off the last 2 retreat routes that went through the gully towards Lastochkine and a road to Sieverne.

Nonetheless, shortly after that, Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Colonel General Syrskyi Postfactum stated early in the morning on the 17th of February that Ukrainian forces withdrew from Avdiivka. This was exactly the time when a lot of combat footage started being released from both sides, which confirms the fact that the clashes were so tough that neither side had the time to post videos online.

The combat footage was shocking. One Russian soldier published a video showing how he was passing the outskirts of Avdiivka on his way to the contact line to storm the Ukrainian position.

The footage showed multiple bodies with red tape, meaning the person belonged to the Russian assault units every couple of meters, and destroyed heavy equipment every couple of 100s of meters.

The video lasted 5 minutes, and the number of corpses was stable and the two Russian soldiers said that out of 4,000 soldiers in their brigade, only 30% survived thus far.

For context, many military analysts were shocked when Russians claimed that they engage in assaults until the detachments incur up to 30% losses, and only then the detachments are rotated out and reconstituted. 30% losses means complete loss of combat capability.

In Avdiivka, Russian brigades, which consist of 4,000 soldiers each, incurred at least 70% losses, according to Russian soldiers who are fighting on the ground right now. With this in mind, the claims of Ukrainian fighters from the 3rd Assault Brigade that their brigade was fighting against 7 Russian brigades make much more sense.

Ukrainian fighters also recently got a chance to describe the dreadful close combat engagements inside the town. They said that Russians used a simple tactic - they gradually accumulated inside basements and houses as close to the contact line as possible, usually, it meant within ten meters from the houses with Ukrainian fighters, and then tried to make a rapid attack.

Most Russian fighters were taken out from machine gun nests, which again explains such a high density of bodies per square meter from the previous footage.

According to Ukrainian fighters from the 3rd Assault Brigade, during their short period of deployment, they reduced 2 Russian brigades virtually to zero. These were the days when Russian losses per day were once again reaching historic heights, surpassing 1,200 soldiers, more than half of which came from Avdiivka.

As you can imagine when both parties are located within 10 m of each other and Russian Aviation drops 500 kg or Worse 1,000 500 kg bombs, they wipe out Russian soldiers just as much as Ukrainian soldiers

Several hours ago, the Ukrainian General Staff released the estimates of the total Russian losses in Avdiivka.

Ukrainian forces reportedly inflicted losses of almost 50,000 personnel, 364 tanks, almost 750 armored combat vehicles, two hundred fifty artillery systems, and five fighter-bombers between the 10th of October and the 17th of February.

Most of these losses were inflicted during the first and last month of the battle for Avdiivka.

In the first month Russians were sending huge crowds, as if there were no mines or artillery, and in the last month the Russian military command was pressed to complete the battle ahead of the election by any means, which led to the ground scattered with corpses - as in the footage at the beginning of this video.

For context, Avdiivka is twice as small as Bakhmut and the battle last 2 times less, but the number of losses that Russians incurred has a higher proportion 80,000 versus 47,000 which means around 30% higher losses for every square meter which is an improvement for Ukrainians.

It is also important to know that Avdiivka’s pre-war population was around 32,000, and it took Russians 47,000 to capture it,

Many Ukrainian military analysts were also pleased that General Syrski did not repeat the Bakhmut scenario and ordered the soldiers to withdraw, instead of fighting until the last house.

Even though the battle is over, the fighting in the region is not, and Russian forces continue to push. The new setting and highly unstable situation creates a lot of uncertainty which Russians want to use to collapse the front line much further