Russian military blogger Andrei Morozov reportedly committed suicide on Wednesday

Wednesday’s Coverage: “There Will Be No Evacuation” — The Troops Left Behind as Avdiivka Fell to Russia’s Invaders

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1419 GMT:

The UK has added 50 new entities to its Russia sanctions list, a day after the European Union cited 200 entities and individuals.

The British have targeted people and businesses supplying munitions such as rocket launch systems, missiles, and explosives. Manufacturers of weapons and of machine tools are cited, and 224th Flight Unit State Airlines and its director are named over reported involvement in the transfer of weapons from North Korea to Russia.

Like the EU, the UK has cited three companies in the first citation of mainland Chinese firms.

UPDATE 1357 GMT:

Denmark is sending another military aid package of 1.7 billion crowns ($247.4 million) to Ukraine.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told a news conference, “Time does not help Ukraine, only action counts on the battlefield. Ukraine’s fight for freedom is our fight.”

The Danish Defense Ministry said the first F-16 fighter jets will be delivered this summer.

The UK will send 200 more anti-tank missiles to Ukraine and train another 10,000 Ukrainian troops, Defense Secretary Grant Shapps has told Parliament.

UPDATE 1112 GMT:

A 59-year-old man has been killed by Russian shelling of the village of Lvove in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.

The victim was in his yard when his home was hit, about 45 km (28 miles) east of Kherson city.

UPDATE 1046 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked New Zealand for its latest package of military assistance.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defense Minister Judith Collins announced the NZ$25.9 million (US $16.8 million) package, taking Wellington’s total assistance during the Russian invasion to more than NZ$100 million (US $62.05 million).

In his latest nightly address to the nation, Zelenskiy hailed the increased effectiveness of Ukraine’s air defenses, downing seven Russian warplanes within a week.

UPDATE 0919 GMT:

In a televised interview, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has put Russia’s capture of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region — only the second city or town overrun by the Russians since July 2022 — into perspective.

During these two years we got [back] part of the Kharkiv region. Now we are in this region…and we unblocked the Black Sea. There are grain routes and we destroyed a lot of their ships of the Russian fleet.

That is what we did over two years. And what they could do? Only this one place. But what for?

Zelenskiy said of the need for international aid for Kyiv, “We have to be more quick. That means to lose all the bureaucracy. Otherwise we will not have any chance.”

UPDATE 0917 GMT:

The Ukraine Air Forces says air defenses downed 8 of 10 Iran-made attack drones fired by Russia overnight.

UPDATE 0824 GMT:

Authorities are forcibly deporting Ukrainian citizens who oppose Moscow’s invasion or “insult” Russia, says the Russian proxy “governor” of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine.

Yevgeny Balitsky said, in an interview published on Tuesday, that Russian officials “expelled a large number of families…who did not support the ‘special military operation’ or who insulted Russia, including the Russian flag, anthem, or Vladimir Putin”.

The “governor” claimed the deportations benefitted the Ukrainian families,, as occupation authorities would have had to “deal” with them in an even “harsher” way in the future or pro-Russian citizens would have killed them.

He added that occupation authorities gave the families the opportunity to leave but deported some by force after “giving them a water bottle”.

UPDATE 0813 GMT:

BBC Russian reports that a Ukrainian strike killed up to 60 Russian troops on an undefended training ground in occupied eastern Ukraine on Tuesday.

The US-supplied HIMARS rocket hit near Volnovakha in the Donetsk region, where at least three companies of the Russian 36th Motorized Rifle Brigade were training.

The head of Russia’s Zabaykalsky Krai region, where the 36th Motorized Rifle Brigade is based, claimed the reports of casualties were “exaggerated”. But Russian ultra-nationalist military bloggers criticized military command for concentrating personnel in a small area, disregaring previous Ukrainian strikes.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russian military blogger Andrey Morozov has died, reportedly by suicide, after posting about heavy casualties in Moscow’s four-month offensive to overrun Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine.

Morozov had reported 16,000 Russians killed or severely wounded in the offensive. The toll compared to 15,000 Soviet troops slain in Afghanistan during the decade-long invasion from 1979 to 1989.

Morozov accused Russian generals of wastefully sacrificing thousands of servicemen to advance their military careers and implied that most Russian journalists lie about battlefield realities. He claimed the Russian military command is increasingly using mobilized personnel as “barrier forces”, specialized units who shoot troops who retreat or refuse to attack.

On Wednesday morning, Morozov — who is a sergeant in the Russian forces in eastern Ukraine — put up a series of entries on the channel. He said a Russian colonel forced him on Tuesday to delete the post about the loss of the 16,000 soldiers and 300 armored vehicles. The colonel threatened to cut off ammunition and equipment to Morozov’s unit if he did not comply.

The milblogger spoke of Russian propagandists who accused him of “slandering the Russian Defense Ministry”. He said the order to delete the post was issued under pressure from commanders and from “political prostitutes led by [State TV polemicist] Vladimir Solovyov”.

Morozov then said he was going to shoot himself, asking his readers “not to be sad”. He requested that he be buried in the Russian proxy “Luhansk People’s Republic” in eastern Ukraine.

As an ultra-nationalist and former sergeant in the Russian armed forces, Morozov was a fervent supporter of the invasion of Ukraine. However, some ultra-nationalists — notably the now-detained Gen. Igor Girkin, who led Russian proxy forces in eastern Ukraine in 2014 — have criticized the military and political leadership for mismanagement of the “special military operation”.

Revealing the Frontline Situation

Publishing his “will”, Morozov added a statement addressed to Russia’s chief military prosecutor about the severe shortage of weapons, manpower, and medical care on the frontline.

He said his battalion lacked grenade launchers, mortars, and vehicles necessary for offensive operations. Russian military medical staff refused to treat shell-shocked servicemen and sent them back to the frontlines without medical examinations, he asserted.

Kremlin-linked propagandists responded that Morozov’s suicide was the fault of friends who failed to help him, using his death to get social media attention by criticizing the Defense Ministry. One milblogger lamented that Russia’s “enemies” will use the suicide to overshadow the Russian capture of Avdiivka.

But other milbloggers, including those affiliated with Wagner Group mercenarizes, accused Solovyov and other propagandists of persecuting Morozov and mocking his death. Supporters of Gen. Girkin, condemned the harassment of the sergeant and hails his years-long commitment to supplying Russian forces with equipment and exposing military failures. Several milbloggers blamed Morozov’s suicide on Russia’s inability to allow different opinions in pursuit of a common goal.