An intercepted phone call between a Russian soldier and a woman suggests Moscow’s forces near the Antonivsky Bridge in the Kherson region took places huge losses under such precise Ukrainian artillery fire that they couldn’t get to the bodies of their fallen comrades.
“The Antonivsky Bridge is full of corpses, and we can’t get them out – ours and theirs, but mostly ours,” the soldier says in the call published by Ukrainian military intelligence over the weekend.
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“All the boys are lying outside, all rotting. Three weeks now we haven’t been able to get to one of them, a guy from home, from Krasnodar.”
The soldier then goes on to describe the intense fighting in the area, describing it as “terrifying.”
“Our artillery comes, shoots at Ukrainian positions, then gets the hell out, whereas we have to stay,” he says.
“And the Ukrainians are looking for where the shelling came from. Now they have the technology and equipment to trace where it came from with sound.
“But we’re sitting in the forest and can’t get away.”
The woman – their exact relationship is not known – tells him to do “whatever you need to do to make it through.”
He replies: “I’m so sick of this war. I don’t even pay attention anymore – the radio screams ‘incoming-incoming,’ and we just sit around, grilling meat on the barbecue.
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“And then we hear a quiet little pop-pop from the other side, and you know that little pop is going to be a kaboom right here.”
It’s not known when the call was made but ISW analysts noted at the end of June that Russians could not make a breakthrough near Antonivsky Bridge, not even with a numerical advantage. ISW attributed the Russians’ lack of success to poor command.
“The milbloggers complained that the Russian military command blindly ordered Russian forces to retake the area under a span of the Antonivsky Bridge on the east bank, resulting in significant losses among Russian personnel and armored vehicles due to Ukrainian artillery fire and remotely laid mines,” ISW reported.
At the beginning of this month, Ukraine reported that Russian troops were trying to return to their positions near the Antonivsky Bridge, increasing the number of attacks.
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