Last Saturday, the Ukrainian army abandoned the eastern town of Avdiivka after weeks of relentless Russian attacks: some wounded soldiers who were unable to escape were killed when Kremlin troops reached their position.
This was reported by CNN, which collected the testimony of relatives who had the last phone calls with them before the arrival of the Russian soldiers, and other Ukrainian soldiers.
The wounded Ukrainian soldiers, who were not evacuated due to the incessant attacks, were part of the 110th Mechanized Brigade and occupied a position called Zenit.
When the situation on the battlefield became untenable, they made desperate attempts to escape from the ruins of the city, Viktor Biliak, one of the soldiers on site, said on Instagram: "Outside the visibility was zero. It was just a matter of survival. A kilometer across the field. We were a group of blind kittens led by a drone under enemy artillery. The road to Avdiivka was full of Ukrainian corpses," he wrote.
Finally a commander informed him by radio that the wounded would not be evacuated.
Six men were left behind.
Among the trapped and surrounded people was a 30-year-old sergeant and war doctor from the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ivan Zhytnyk, nom de guerre Django.
He had been fighting in Avdiivka for almost two years, he was seriously injured and he could not move.
Last Thursday he managed to contact his sister Kateryna with a video call: Kateryna asks her brother: "So... no one is coming? Are your kids also there (with you), or are you alone?".
Zhytnyk replies: "Everyone left, everyone retreated. They told us that a car would come for us. I have two broken legs, splinters in my back. I can't do anything...".
He told her that in the Zenit position there were half a dozen soldiers, four of whom, like Zhytnyk, could not walk.
Kateryna responds crying: "I don't know how... who to call."
"I don't understand. Who will come to get you?"
Nobody went to get them.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA