Video appears to show Russian soldier saying 81% of his unit was wiped out after a week in Ukraine's most intense battle

• A Russian solider filmed himself describing huge losses in Avdiivka.
• He said that of his group of 75, only 14 had not been killed or wounded after a week.

A Russian solider said that his unit had been almost totally wiped out after being sent to the most intense fight in Ukraine, according to a widely-shared video.

The soldier, speaking to a comrade, said they were sent there about a week ago, in which time almost all of them had been killed or wounded.

"75 of us came here. And now there are fucking 14 of us here left," he said — an 81% casualty rate.

"The rest are all 200s and 300s," he said. "Cargo 200" is Russian military slang for killed, and "cargo 300" means wounded.

One copy of the footage, with English translation, was published Sunday on X by Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to Ukraine's internal affairs ministry.

The same footage was published earlier by a number of Russian and Ukrainian channels on Telegram and Russia's VK social network.

Business Insider wasn't able to verify the details of the footage, but all the channels described the speaker as a Russian soldier based near Avdiivka, site of the heaviest fighting in Ukraine.

In the video the soldier said of Ukrainian forces that: "They were simply destroying us."

He said the Ukrainians had concrete bunkers and were using Grad multiple-rocket launchers to attack them.

He said he was filming close to the front, and that he and his comrades were "pulled back because we could no longer continue the combat mission."

He said his unit was about to withdraw "on our own" without explaining further what he meant.

During the video the sound of an incoming shell can be heard — the soldier says "it seems I have been spotted" then ran into a dugout as more explosions landed.

Avdiivka, a town in eastern Ukraine, has become a key and deadly location in the fight between Russia and Ukraine in recent weeks.

The UK Ministry of Defence said on Monday that "Over the last week, the Donetsk Oblast town of Avdiivka has continued to be the scene of the most intense combat on the front."

It said that on some days "approaching 40 per cent of all combat engagements have likely taken place in this small sector."

Russia started its major assault on Avdiivka in October, after Ukraine retook the town in September. It has seen huge losses since, in both personnel and vehicles, according to Ukraine, Western intelligence, and analysts.

The attack is Russia's most significant new offensive in 2023.

Riley Bailey, a Russia analyst at the US think tank the Institute for the Study of War, previously told Business Insider that Russia is pushing hard to take the village to give it a symbolic victory after months of relatively few successes.