When the NYT admits “ hundreds”, think “ thousands”
“ two battalions” was, alone, the cost of a multiple missile strike on the AZOV 3d brigade at their deployment site ….a strike repeated on them after they retreated. No Russian love lost for the nazified 3d Brigade, reputed as the most ideological fighters for the regime, possibly sent to Avdeevka to be sacrificed because of their loyalty to the deposed Army chief Zaluzhny…or to serve as “ barrier force” to execute regulars trying to retreat or surrender.
Fwiw the Russian MoD briefed on 17 Feb a single day loss to the Ukrainians of 2600 troops, their largest single day loss of the war
The “ poorly managed retreat” was ordered by the Uke command to try to save face as their surviving units encircled by Russians broke, defied orders to hold, and ran for their lives leaving their wounded behind
“No Russian love lost for the nazified 3d Brigade, reputed as the most ideological fighters for the regime, possibly sent to Avdeevka to be sacrificed because of their loyalty to the deposed Army chief Zaluzhny”
I was thinking the same - the biggest threat to Zelensky is the NATO Trained and Equipped 3rd Brigade (i.e., the Ukrainian Nazis) and I suspect something didn’t seem right in their orders to be sent on a suicide mission.
zElensky also wants to get rid of the Azov guys, because they support Zaluzhnyi, who is a political danger to the Piano Puppet and his American puppeteers.
That's also probably the reason the plane full of Azov guy POWs got rubbed out by the Ukrainians.