Ukraine does not intend to drop Avdiïvka yet. Ukrainian troops were "urgently redeployed" to reinforce the city's garrison, the epicenter of fighting and bombings which made this city in eastern Ukraine a "hell" under Russian assaults.
The situation has been evolving rapidly in recent days in this industrial city of Donbass ravaged by fighting, where the position of the Ukrainian defenders has been increasingly precarious since Russia launched its offensive in October to complete its encirclement of the city.
“The third assault brigade confirms having been urgently redeployed to reinforce Ukrainian troops in the Avdiïvka sector” this unit indicated on Telegram on Thursday in a message titled “the hell of Avdiïvka”.
Also read Counter-attacks from Russia: nothing is going well for the Ukrainian army?
This brigade claimed to be carrying out counterattacks on neighborhoods conquered by the Russians, estimating the opposing forces in its area at "around seven brigades", or several thousand people, with reinforcements continuing to arrive.
“We are forced to fight in 360 degrees against new brigades that the enemy continues to send,” said unit commander Andrii Biletsky.
“Incessant shooting”
More reserved, the Ukrainian army general staff simply declared, as they do every day, that the Russians were continuing their attempts to “encircle Avdiivka”.
“Our soldiers firmly hold the defense, inflicting significant losses on the invaders,” assured the general staff in its morning report.
According to the Telegram channel DeepState, close to the Ukrainian army and followed by more than 600,000 people, Russian forces advanced during the day on Wednesday to the north and south of the city in their attempt to cut the city in two , the situation “continuing to deteriorate due to incessant shooting”.
See also Avdiïvka, the Ukrainian fortress which has resisted the Russian army for almost a year
“Enemy assault groups are focusing on areas where they are successful. At the same time, troops continue to accumulate in occupied buildings in the city,” she said in a message published Wednesday evening.
Avdiïvka briefly fell in July 2014 into the hands of separatists led by Moscow, before returning to Ukrainian control and remaining so despite the invasion of February 24, 2022 and its proximity to Donetsk, a stronghold of pro-Russian forces in the east of Ukraine. Ukraine for 10 years.
It is now largely destroyed, but some 900 civilians remain there according to local authorities. Moscow also hopes that its capture will make Ukrainian bombing of Donetsk more difficult.
Russian oil depot attacked
Ukraine was also targeted overnight by a new attack by 26 Russian missiles, 13 of which were shot down, which left at least one dead and nine injured – three in Lviv, in the west, and six in Zaporizhzhia. , in the south of the country –, according to the authorities.
Over the last 24 hours, eight people were also killed and 13 injured in the Donetsk region, where the fighting and bombings are concentrated, according to the police.
In Russia, an oil depot caught fire overnight in the Kursk border region following a Ukrainian drone attack, Russian authorities said. This type of attack has increased in recent months in an attempt to deprive Moscow of key resources.
According to state news agency Ria Novosti, bombing also hit a shopping center in the Russian city of Belgorod on Thursday. According to local authorities, the toll is at least five dead and 18 injured.
The Russian Defense Ministry has so far limited itself to saying that at midday rockets launched by the Ukrainian army on the Belgorod region had been neutralized.
Ukrainian forces have been on the defensive on most of the front since the failure of their counter-offensive last summer and say they lack men, weapons and ammunition due to a lack of sufficient Western support.
To gain more support, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will travel to Germany and France on Friday to meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Emmanuel Macron respectively before attending the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday.
In Paris, Volodymyr Zelensky will sign a security agreement between France and Ukraine. In Germany he will give a speech at the Munich Conference and will meet in particular with American Vice-President Kamala Harris.
With AFP
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