Can’t delete a folder from an external drive on MacOS

So, the problem isn’t new, the ever so often sneaky permission or file in use, but I have always found a way to deal with such files. This is different, this file is in superposition… It both exists and doesn’t exist. I am about to give up and just format the drive. But before I do that, I’ll share it with you all, and see if you guys can think of something I’m missing.

So, Where it all starts. I had some Windows files backed up on an external volume. The volume is APFS and the files were written using Paragon’s APFS for windows extension.
Later, after the windows machine is reinstalled and the files moved back successfully, I deleted them from the drive. The delete operation was done on my MacBook.

Then the dreaded “Files are in use” shit popped up. Things I tried:

1. First tried the good old sudo rm -rf /Volumes/[the external drive]/.Trashes. This produced exactly nothing. No result in the Terminal at all.
   screenshot 1
2. I tried to change the permissions for all files and folders in the main deleted folder in the Trash, using sudo chmod -R 777 [path]. But this resulted in a “No such file of directory”.
   screenshot 2
3. I went and changed the permissions of all folders visible in the Trash to be “Read & Write” for all groups using the Cmd+i interface. Then tried to empty the trash again, but alas it lead to the same result 🙁
   screenshot 3
4. I went and checked each bottom-most folder in the tree for the actual files that were making problems. And here comes the strangest part. using sudo ls -la I can see that the __MACOSX directory has a file named ._Panorama10-1етай баниа.jpg but trying to do anything with this file results in a “No such file of directory”.
   screenshot 4
5. I tried sudo touch "._Panorama10-1етай баниа.jpg" which essentially created a second file with the same name, but different size and permissions.
6. I asked for deletion of the file with the same name, and it deleted the new file, but left the old one un-touched (pun intended) 😀
   screenshot 5
7. I can see the permissions of the original hidden file are read-only, but trying to change them returns me back to the “No such file or directory”…

At that point I gave up. 🙁
So, can someone please tell me if I’m doing something completely wrong, or shall I just move files from the drive somewhere else and just format it?

Thanks in advance,