2023-10-12 16:59:00
A city thrown into war since the fighting in 2014, threatened since the start of the year by Russian advances on its flanks, Avdiïvka has been the scene of the most significant Russian attack in almost a year since October 9.
“We had not observed (In the region) such a quantity of vehicles and men used by the Russians since the beginning of the invasion”the head of the local military administration, Vitali Barabach, assured the Ukrainian television channel Freedom on October 11.
According to the Kiev authorities, three battalions – around 2,000 men – and around fifty armored vehicles were deployed to pincer this industrial town in Donbass, shelled relentlessly since the start of the Russian invasion and almost entirely emptied of its 35,000 inhabitants.
Russian troops three kilometers away
“The difficult battle for Avdiïvka continueswrote this Thursday, October 12, on its Telegram channel DeepState, a collective of Ukrainian analysts and volunteers. The enemy has recorded partial successes, but time will tell if they can gain a foothold in the area. » A sign of the intensity of the fighting, the Ukrainian general staff, in its public briefing of October 11, noted 108 clashes along the front line in the previous 24 hours, the highest figure since March. .
The clashes are largely concentrated around Avdiïvka, around which Russian forces supported by several dozen tanks and armored vehicles have been trying to advance for three days. The offensive is still underway, even if images filmed by Ukrainian drones and geolocated in the area already show at least twenty Russian armored vehicles destroyed in Ukrainian minefields.
Russian troops would still have managed to advance to the outskirts of Sieverne, a village located just 3 kilometers southwest of Avdiïvka. This Thursday, October 12, the situation in the city, targeted in the morning by several airstrikes, remained “very tense for the third day in a row”said Vitali Barabach.
Captured in 2014, then recaptured
The initial difficulties of the Russian offensive reflect the particularities of this area. Because the front line in this region does not date from 2022: captured by separatist groups supported by Russia in April 2014, this town in Donbass built around the coal ovens of the local coking plant was then recaptured by the forces Ukrainians a few months later. For eight years, until the invasion of February 2022, the front line remained frozen in the eastern suburbs of the city.
A certain vagueness surrounds the objective of this Russian offensive, between the tactical desire to reduce the cauldron of Avdiïvka as winter approaches and the desire to distract the Ukrainian forces. “The occupiers are trying to surround Avdiivka and attract our reserves to this area in order to weaken the actions of the Ukrainian forces”assures the spokesperson for the Ukrainian army command, Andriï Kovalev.
Because, while temperatures have suddenly dropped across the country in recent days, the Ukrainian army is still trying to advance in the South. Without having, after four months of violent fighting, managed to make a real breakthrough.
—–
PODCAST – The other side of the story: listen to season 5, dedicated to Ukraine
#Russian #forces #offensive #east #country