A top Ukrainian commander has claimed that Russia’s biggest offensive in months – involving tanks, thousands of soldiers and armoured vehicles in an attack on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka – is failing, as he admitted Kyiv’s own attempts to advance in the south were proving “difficult”.
Russian forces have pummelled the town over the past week, a key bulge surrounded by Russian-held territory on the eastern Donbas front.
It is one of the largest assaults by Moscow since last year’s full-scale invasion and comes at a time when Ukraine’s counteroffensive is moving slowly, and the world is focused on the imminent Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Russian forces have pummelled the town over the past week, a key bulge surrounded by Russian-held territory on the eastern Donbas front.
Col Dmytro Lysyuk – the commander of Ukraine’s 128th separate mountain assault brigade – said he believed there was zero possibility the Russian army would break through.
He said that sending a lengthy military column into battle – a tactic used when Russian forces tried to seize Kyiv last year, and the eastern town of Vuhledar in February – would not work.
They included numerous minefields laid by Russia over the past 18 months; an extensive defensive trench network, dug in three lines; and kamikaze and first person view (FPV) drones.
Pentagon officials have criticised Ukraine’s battlefield strategy and suggested that a large concentration of forces at a single point could achieve quicker results.
“A return to ‘offensive’ tactics after almost a year of defence is not easy for the troops,” they said, adding that Ukraine’s forces would seek to regain lost positions.
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