"Pyrrhic victory": Russian propagandists complain of huge losses in Avdiivka sector

The occupation of Avdiivka cost Russian troops incredible losses. According to some propaganda channels, they "exceed" the losses of the occupiers in the battles for Bakhmut, where the most capable Russian force, the Wagner PMC, was practically worn out.

Journalist Denys Kazanskyi drew attention to this recognition of Russian patriots who support aggression against Ukraine. Meanwhile, Cyber Resistance activists have obtained evidence of the Russian command's attempts to conceal losses in order not to overshadow Russian President Vladimir Putin's long-awaited "victory."

Kazanskyi published screenshots of a post from the Telegram channel of Russian propagandist Maxim Kalashnikov, who is also an associate of terrorist and ex-militant of the "DPR" Igor Girkin. It says that in the assaults on Avdiivka, Russia lost many times more occupants than during the capture of Bakhmut.

At the same time, Bakhmut was about twice as large as Avdiivka in terms of population and area. Thus, before the war, Bakhmut, with an area of 41.6 square kilometers, was home to just over 73,000 people. In Avdiivka, on the other hand, about 32,500 people lived on 29 square kilometers.

"Propaganda channels write about the cost of taking what is left of Avdiivka. After losing thousands of their citizens, the Russian "defenders of Donbas" received another ruins with smoke rising over it. It is obvious why Avdiivka was so frantically littered with bodies. Before the election, Putin urgently needed at least some kind of victory. And it was won at the very price that Girkin-Strelkov's friends write about," Kazanskyi commented on the occupiers' acknowledgement.

On his channel, the Russian propagandist reposted a message from one of the Russian occupiers, who was outraged by the attempts of most "colleagues" and Russian channels to make the retreat of the Defense Forces from the city look like a "surrender" in order to save the lives of the military and avoid encirclement.

"I still believe that it is unacceptable to voice the losses. Everyone knows that Avdiivka cost us many times more in people than Artemovsk (Bakhmut). And even the final stage of the assault cost many times more," the message reads.

The author of the message also recalled the cries of propagandists about the "valiant battles" of the occupiers, whom the Russian command equipped with "iron helmets" instead of modern ammunition.

"Today, no one is running around in iron helmets anymore. Not because everyone has been changed but because the wearers of those iron helmets have run out. Literally... No other war in history has ever gnawed away at every inch of vast territories like this or covered every step with blood like this," the author of the post claims.

Meanwhile, the Russian command is doing everything it can to avoid spoiling Putin's much-desired "victory" on the eve of the election.

At the end of last year, Cyber Resistance activists managed to infiltrate the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Russian Ministry of Defense, headed by Igor Konashenkov, the main hero of the meme "there are no losses in the Russian Armed Forces". Having obtained as much information as possible that was important and useful to the Defense Forces, the cyberactivists left a "loophole" for further "visits."

As a result, they obtained evidence of the Russian Defense Ministry's desperate attempts to conceal the real extent of the Russian occupation forces' losses during the storming of Avdiivka.

In particular, they hacked into the mailbox of Denis Belyaev, the head of the information support group of this department, and extracted an interesting document illustrating the Russian Defense Ministry's attempts to conceal losses.

"Now the Russian ministry of propaganda is activating its henchmen and making them spread fakes about the success in Avdiivka and silencing those who talk about heavy losses due to the preservation of the tradition of "meat assaults" to meet the deadlines.. The situation is reaching a point where they are advancing but suffer such losses from the city's defenders that they are forced to turn on the entire military propaganda machine to silence the cries of those who are now being chewed by a cerberus in Russian hell," Cyber Resistance commented on the content of the document.

For example, Konashenkov's department issued an order to the Russian army's press services to praise the "massive feat and heroism" of the invaders who came to foreign lands as occupiers.

At the same time, they are to compare the actions of the aggressor country's army with the actions of the Soviet army during World War II. In particular, it is recommended to draw parallels between the capture of Avdiivka and the assaults on the well-fortified positions of Nazi troops by the Red Army during the Mius offensive in 1943. The purpose of that operation was to restrain and, if possible, defeat the enemy group in Donbas in order to prevent its forces from moving to the Kursk salient, where decisive battles were taking place at the time.

Propagandists in the Russian Ministry of Defense are categorically required to "avoid mentioning the loss of personnel in their messages, focusing on the advancement of forces and equipment." The content of the "messages" must be coordinated with the department headed by Konashenkov.

The letter also reminded that information about the occupation army's losses in manpower, equipment, and weapons is a state secret, so representatives of the Russian military propaganda machine should make sure that the so-called Russian media do not receive this information.

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