Russians report suicide of militant close to terrorist Girkin amid leaked Avdiivka losses

Military propagandists of the Russian Federation wrote that Andrey "Murz" Morozov, a "milblogger" and a soldier of the 4th Motorized Rifle Brigade, shot himself after criticizing the command of the Russian army for the huge losses during the assault on Avdiivka. He was an associate and friend of the jailed terrorist Igor Girkin (Strelkov).

The Russian sources write that a suicide note appeared on Morozov's Telegram channel, in which he explains the suicide by pressure from the command of the Russian army.

A few days ago, "Murz" wrote that during the storming of Avdiivka, the Russians lost 16,000 people irretrievably, and also stated that the military prosecutor's office of St. Petersburg refused to consider the complaint of a soldier of one of the regiments against the actions of the command.

The war correspondent said that the command decided to hush up the losses because of the criticism of the propagandist Vladimir Solovyov.

"Today, comrade colonel, I was forced to delete the post by your order. And you were forced to give this order by your command, relying on the good old army collective responsibility. If not deleted – we will not get supplies. Shells. Copters. New tanks and IFVs. And he, your command, was forced to do it by political whores led by Vladimir Solovyov, who are afraid to come and pull the trigger themselves. Well, I'll do it myself. I'll shoot myself if no one dares to accept responsibility for this petty business. And you will give tanks and helicopters. From February 21, 2024, you can safely tell everyone who calls you that I do not serve you and there are no problems with me," Morozov wrote in his death note.

In the early 2000s, "Murz" was a member of the Nazi movement "Red Blitzkrieg". In 2007, he was sentenced to three years in prison for firing at the sign of Vladimir Putin's United Russia party on Kutuzovsky Prospekt in Moscow. Since 2014, he fought in "LPR" terrorist formations, he was 44 years old.

In the area of Avdiivka, the Russian army has enough forces and means for further advancement, with Lastochkyne as the main direction, the 3rd ~Separate Assault Brigade said.

On February 17, 2024, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi announced that Ukrainian troops had withdrawn from Avdiivka in order to prevent unnecessary losses.

The commander of the Tavria troop grouping Tarnavskyi stated that the withdrawal of the units took place taking into account various scenarios, but some of the troops were captured by the Russian Federation. The 3rd Brigade says that they had only isolated cases of captives, and not at the level of units, platoons and divisions, as the Russians claim.