Avdiivka: Russian Forces Are ‘Attacking on Every Side’ – Besiegers Now Fight for Heavily Fortified Coke Plant, Try To Cut Reinforcement Route
Slowly but relentlessly, Russian forces surround and try to control the supply lines to the city of Avdiivka.
Ever since the much-hyped Ukrainian counteroffensive petered out and devolved into meaningless ‘meat assaults’, Russia has seized back the initiative and various pints along the frontline.
Since October, Russian troops have been concentrated land and air-based attacks on the strategic Donbas city of Avdiivka, making it the focal point of their push through eastern Ukraine’s defenses.
A few more kilometers of advance (between 3 and 7km depending on the source) and supplies and reinforcements will be blocked from entering Avdiivka, or anyone from leaving it.
Unlike Bakhmut, where one route remained open the entire duration of the siege, Avdiivka may face complete isolation.
Russian telegram channel Dvenik Desantnika reported battles on the northern flank, where the Russian Armed Forces are displacing the enemy in forest plantations near Tokmak.
“Also, the control of the territory by our troops around Stepovoye in the direction of Berdychi is gradually increasing.
There are no significant changes in the LOC [line of contact] on the southern flank, but intense fighting continues.
Artillery and all types of drones are actively working together.”
Now, even Ukrainian sources in the MSM have to report that the Russian Federation forces are advancing in many areas of the long front line – specially on Avdiivka.
The drive to capture Avdiivka sees advance ‘from all sides’, the town’s top official was quoted as saying.
Reuters reported:
“The latest push, reported by Vitaliy Barabash, head of Avdiivka’s military administration, followed reports last week that Ukrainian troops had made some headway in halting and pushing back the Russian advance.
‘Things in the Avdiivka sector have become even tougher. The intensity of clashes has been increasing for some time’, Barabash told the media outlet Espreso TV.
‘The Russians have opened up two more sectors from which they have begun making assaults – in the direction of Donetsk … and in the so-called industrial zone. The enemy is attempting to storm the city from all directions’.”
Watch: FPV drones strike on a building that was used by the enemy to house personnel, in Avdiivka direction. The first drone was used to punch a hole in the roof, while the second with a thermobaric warhead flew through it into the building and exploded inside.
The key position has been fought over for 8-plus years, and not a single building remains intact.
Fewer than 1,500 residents remain, out of 32,000 before the war.
“Ukrainian and Western military analysts say Russia has incurred heavy losses, although the battle for the town is rarely mentioned in official Russian military dispatches.
Russian military bloggers also reported Ukrainian gains near Avdiivka last week. On Monday, Russian reports said Moscow’s troops had secured control of the industrial zone and were attempting to storm the coking plant.”
Much of the fighting has focused on the recently taken industrial zone, and now on the disputed coking plant.
CNN reported:
“Avdiivka has been on the frontlines since pro-Moscow separatists seized large portions of the Donbas region, including the nearby city of Donetsk, in 2014, and has been under fire since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.”
The city is a heavily fortified stronghold, with entrenchments built up over the past eight years.
“Analysts say the Russian aim is to encircle the city and take over an area of high ground near an industrial facility which would give Russia effective fire control over Ukrainian supply routes.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the fighting in Avdiivka an ‘onslaught’ and said the battle will be the one that in many ways will ‘determine the overall course of the war’.”
The Guardian reported:
“In an intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Russia had made ‘small’ advances on the northern axis of a pincer movement as part of an attempt to surround Avdiivka.
‘Although Avdiivka has become a salient or bulge in the Ukrainian frontline, Ukraine remains in control of a corridor of territory approximately 7km wide, through which it continues to supply the town’.”
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