Russian War Reporter Who Revealed Huge Avdiivka Troop Losses Dies

Andrei Morozov, a Russian soldier and military blogger, has died by suicide shortly after revealing the scale of Moscow's troop losses in the fight for Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine, multiple Russian Telegram channels have reported.

Morozov, who goes by the pseudonym "Murz" and ran a popular pro-war channel on Telegram, killed himself, according to a lawyer named Maxim Pashkov who said he spoke to Morozov on Tuesday night, independent Russian news outlet Meduza reported.

The Bell, an independent Russian news outlet, said that Morozov wrote about the combat zones in Ukraine's partially Russian-occupied Luhansk and Donetsk regions, and on Moscow's supplies and equipment.

On Wednesday morning, a series of posts were published on Morozov's channel in which he said he intended to take his own life. He asked his readers "not to be sad" about his death, and requested that he be buried in the self-proclaimed "Luhansk People's Republic" in Ukraine's Donbas region.

Days earlier, the military blogger claimed Russia lost 16,000 troops and 300 armored vehicles in the battle for the key frontline town of Avdiivka. Russia in October launched a major offensive on the key frontline town, which been the target of Moscow's forces' aggression since 2014 when Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed the southern Crimean peninsula from Ukraine.

Morozov wrote that he was forced to delete the post on Russian losses from his channel on Wednesday.

He suggested that Kremlin propagandists led by Putin's ally, Vladimir Solovyov, pressured him to delete the post. Newsweek has contacted Russia's foreign ministry for comment by email.

There have been numerous cases of prominent Russians dying in mysterious circumstances since Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Avdiivka, which had a pre-war population of 32,000, fell to Russian forces on February 17.

Kyiv said its forces had withdrawn from the town after months of fighting. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the decision was made to save the lives of his soldiers, and Russia has since said it has taken full control of the area, marking Moscow's biggest victory for months.

On Tuesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow sustained "minimal losses" in the fight for Avdiivka, Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Shoigu said Moscow's operation to capture the city will be included in military textbooks.

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