A Russian soldier’s 300-man battalion was said to have been slaughtered in an unsuccessful assault on a Ukrainian city, according to one of the survivrors.
The private who went by the name of Andrei, not his real name, was one of just three soldiers who walked away from the bloody massacre that followed on from an attempt to take Avdiivka, a city in Donetsk, Ukraine.
This comes as Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has passed its one year anniversary last month.
Fears of a resurgent threat from the Russian army bolstered by new conscriptions remain, but there was no renewed push on Kyiv come the anniversary on February 24.
Andrei spoke to his friend Ivan about the assault, who relayed the conversation to Radio Free Europe.
The Daily Star reported that Andrei told his friend: “Man, I don't know how I survived. I'm the only one of my group still alive".
He added: “I never heard such horror in anyone's voice before in my life -- 'My brigade doesn't exist -- it is just gone.'"
Ivan described the seven minute phone call as harrowing.
He said that Andrei’s battalion, which wasn’t named to protect his identity, was sent to attack the city with no support from the rest of the Russian Army. But the city they claim to have attacked was hit by Russian airstrikes as recently as last week.
Ivan went on: "There was no covering fire. No medical help. Many of them died from lack of care.
“Wounded soldiers were left on the field. Only the lightly wounded were helped”.
He claimed that Russian commanders refused to provide any support to soldiers in the battalion, some of whom Andrei had known for 20 years or so, because they were afraid of losing the heavy weaponry in the fighting.
This was especially apparent a problem early on in the war when Russian’s forces overstretched themselves in a desperate dash to make Kyiv and groups of soldiers found themselves isolated and cut off.
Social media saw a number of videos of Ukrainians taking Russian tanks and other vehicles as well as weapons.
Shockingly, despite the heavy losses suffered by the soldiers, Ivan said Andrei told him that his officers had said: “‘You are just meat for us and nothing more. You can forget about the medals and bonuses you were promised. You simply don't exist.'"
Andrei told him: “I came here to defend my motherland.
“But it turns out that I am just dying in a foreign land. And the guys who came with me have died in this foreign land for God only knows what."
The war has claimed tens of thousands of lives so far, displacing over eight million people according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
However, almost three million people from the country have ended up in Russia.
This includes children and recently Vladimir Putin had an arrest warrant issued for him by the International Criminal Court related to their abduction.
The Kremlin boss has also been making overtures to China as Russia finds itself isolated on the international stage.
Putin met with the Chinese President Xi Jingping, in Moscow this week where the authoritarian Chinese leader said his country was on the “right side of history” and had an “impartial position” on the conflict.
