Pro-Russian forces manage to cut off one of the roads leading to Avdiivka

An abandoned house outside Avdïivka, in the Donetsk region, in early February 2022 (photo illustration).

AP - Vadim Ghirda

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Moscow and its allies are advancing on the terrain of Donbass.

To the far east, Severodonetsk looks set to fall.

And to the north, territories already held by Russia's allies, the pro-Russian separatists, claimed on Wednesday June 1 to have recorded a tactical gain by cutting one of the only two roads leading to the town of Avdiivka, near from Donetsk.

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With our correspondent in Moscow,

It has been two weeks since the assault on this fortress and fortified city was being prepared.

In Donetsk, the authorities had asked civilians to evacuate the area of ​​the northern agglomeration.

Avdiïvka is in a way in the suburbs of the capital of this pro-Russian separatist republic.

In recent days, the battle for control of Donetsk had become bitter, with missiles falling on this industrial city: warning sirens, dead and injured in the city center...

This Wednesday, June 1, the pro-Russian forces announced the takeover of an important axis, one of the two supply lines of the Avdiïvka garrison.

In other words, if this assertion is confirmed, the Russian military pressure on this city would have increased by several notches.

Its capture would represent two gains: symbolic gain, because it has been almost on the front line since 2014, conquered that year by the separatists and then recaptured;

a tactical gain too, since for the Russians to bend Avdiivka would amount to opening the way to the great city of Kramatorsk, barely a hundred kilometers further.

►Read also: Arms deliveries to Ukraine: Moscow warns

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