Intense fighting has raged near Kharkiv since Russian troops opened up a new front line in early May.
But now witness accounts paint a grim picture of Russia’s offensive in the Ukrainian region.
– They are literally hacking us up. We are sent out in front of machine guns and drones like a piece of meat. And commanders just shout “forward, forward,” said soldier Anton Andreev in a video posted by Russia’s Astra and verified by The Guardian.
Andreev’s unit has been severely decimated since the start of the offensive, he states. Today only 12 out of 100 soldiers are alive.
– I don’t know if I will get out of this alive, but I have to say something to honor the memory of those who died like pieces of meat here, he says in the video clip.
Putin denies losses
In the first week of the offensive, Russian troops occupied close to 100 square kilometers of Ukrainian land, Russia’s biggest success in 18 months.
But since then, Ukraine has managed to stabilize the front and reduce the imminent risk that Moscow could encircle Kharkiv, which is Ukraine’s second largest city.
Russian state media and officials have come out and said that troops are steadily advancing in the direction of Kharkiv. In addition, Putin claims that the Russian losses are “of course several times less than on the Ukrainian side”.
According to The Guardian, the Kremlin is working non-stop to try to stop accounts and testimonies like Anton Andreev’s.