All that remained of the trees were blackened stumps, destroyed houses, and almost every building in Avdiivka has traces of war. However, Russia has published an official report showing a city in the Donetsk region that it allegedly “liberated,” Reuters reports.

Avdiivka became a ghost townPhoto: Sputnik / Profimedia Images

The industrial city, once home to 32,000 residents, fell to Russian forces on Saturday, marking President Vladimir Putin’s biggest victory in Ukraine since the capture of Bakhmut, another Donetsk city, late last spring.

A report released by the Russian Defense Ministry and picked up by Russian television shows that almost every building in the city has been damaged by the fighting.

A Russian soldier, who is not named in the report, walks through the desert, talking about the fact that the Ukrainian defenders retreated hastily and in a disorderly manner.

The military officer also tells that the “liberating” troops found military rations that Canada supplies to Ukraine, NATO cartridges and 120 mm mortars.

Reuters notes that it was able to independently confirm, based on earlier satellite images, that the footage released by the Russian Defense Ministry was taken in the city.

Ten years ago, pro-Russian forces tried to capture Avdiivka

A woman, who can be seen in the footage, tells Putin’s soldiers that apart from the dogs, only a few hundred civilians still live among the ruins of the city, who hide in basements and come out to collect water in plastic containers only when they hear it. hostilities decreased in intensity.

“It was, of course, scary, very scary,” says the woman Tatiana in Russian. “We are very glad that you came. We live in basements. We don’t live in apartments. All our apartments are destroyed. After the start of the special operation, I went down to the basements,” she says.

A separate part of the report, taken from a drone, further illustrates the devastation this city suffered during months of fighting:

Avdiyivka, the city that Russians call “Avdeevka”, has survived more than ten years of fighting. It has particular symbolism for Moscow, as pro-Russian separatists from Donbas, who came to control large swathes of eastern Ukraine in 2014, managed to briefly seize it, only to be liberated by Kyiv forces.

The city is located approximately 15 kilometers north of Donetsk, the administrative capital of the Omon region.

A video released by the Ukrainian military shows fierce fighting during the withdrawal from Avdiyivka, as Kyiv tried to withdraw its troops from the city to avoid encirclement.

Follow the latest events of the 727th day of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HOTNEWS.RO.