Ukrainian officials say Russian forces are leaving a trail of devastation as they retreat from previously occupied areas in the east of the country, with a focus mostly on civilian and other strategic targets.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a Facebook post on Thursday that Russian forces have begun to concentrate the brunt of their military efforts near the towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast as they attempt to relocate to regions to form in which they met tough resistance from the Ukrainian Armed Forces: Soledar, Bakhmutske, Yakovlivka, Odradivka, Zaitseve, Bakhmut, Krasnohorivka, Pobyeda, Vodyane and Lyubomirivka.
They said Russia continued to conduct a mix of air and bombing raids on dozens of settlements across the country. And in their retreat, Russian forces used “scorched earth tactics” across Ukraine, including destroying a dam outside Raihorodok that flooded the city.
Above, volunteers search the rubble of a building looking for survivors after a strike in Zaporizhia October 6, 2022. Ukrainian officials say Russian troops are leaving a “trail of destruction” as they withdraw from occupied parts of the country. Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images
“There is a mass destruction of archives and copies of documents, especially documents containing the history of the occupation, in Kadiivka,” the Ukrainian military said. “In Svatovo, the most important infrastructure facilities, buildings and territories have already been mined.”
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.
The news comes days after Russia’s disastrous withdrawal from the strategic city of Lyman in the Kherson region, where Ukrainian troops pushed back the occupation, just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin officially announced the territory’s annexation.
Although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in his late night address on Tuesday that Russia would maintain a military presence in the region and recapture eight small settlements there, they believed that the Russian military’s ability to make up for its frontline losses would ultimately affect their ability , to achieve significant advances in the region’s interior.
While Russia has tried to bolster its ranks through mass recruitment, Ukraine said efforts have so far been unsuccessful as government news shows the country is currently falling far short of its initially stated recruitment targets.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, the partial military mobilization of Russian civilians that Putin announced last month is actually “swallowing” small settlements in outlying regions of Russia, far from the sites of the most vocal protests against the effort, where they say all men are of draft age “Forcibly taken to military commissariats.”
Meanwhile, experts doubt not only whether Russia can keep up the fight abroad, but also whether it can maintain morale within its own ranks.
On Thursday, The Moscow Times reported that recently mobilized Russian soldiers are beginning to condemn “inhumane” conditions, shortages of weapons and ill-treatment by officers as they prepare for deployment to the front lines, with many having to spend their own money to support themselves .