Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday said the defense of the shattered eastern city of Avdiivka was key to Kyiv’s war plans, with heavy Russian losses there were likely to undermine Moscow’s conduct of the broader conflict.
Meanwhile, Zelenskiy’s chief of staff acknowledged for the first time that Ukraine’s forces in the southern Kherson region had established a foothold on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, potentially opening a new line of attack toward Crimea.
Russian troops abandoned the western bank a year ago and took up positions on the eastern side from which they have been regularly shelling towns and villages opposite.
Photo: Reuters
Moscow’s forces have focused on eastern Ukraine since failing to advance on Kyiv in the first days of the invasion. They have taken aim at Avdiivka since the middle of last month and officials from the town, which had a pre-war population of 32,000, have said not a single building remains intact.
Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, said Russian assaults in the eastern Donetsk region including Avdiivka had been “very intense.”
“Russia is already losing men and equipment near Avdiivka faster and on a larger scale than, for example, near Bakhmut,” he said, referring to months of heavy fighting that culminated in Russian forces capturing the eastern town of Bakhmut in May.
“Withstanding their pressure is extremely difficult... The more Russian forces that are destroyed near Avdiivka, the worse the overall situation will be for the enemy and the overall course of this war,” Zelenskiy said.
Official Russian accounts of fighting in the east made no mention of Avdiivka, although prominent Russian war blogger Rybar said there had been “some headway” in positions around the town.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said that Moscow’s forces had repelled five attacks around villages near Bakhmut recaptured by Ukraine since May.
It said that 300 Ukrainians had been killed and wounded.
Reuters could not verify accounts from either side.
Bakhmut lies about 50km north of Avdiivka, which is only 20km west of the Russian-held regional capital of Donetsk.
Ukrainian military spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun said fighting was heaviest south of Avdiivka.
“Over the last three days, the occupiers have actively used guided aviation bombs in Donetsk region, particularly around Avdiivka,” Shtupun told national television.
Ukrainian forces had repelled 18 Russian attacks over the past 24 hours, he said.
The acknowledgment by the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, that Kyiv’s forces were established on the Dnipro’s eastern bank followed weeks of contradictory reports.
“Against all odds, Ukraine’s defense forces have gained a foothold on the left [east] bank of the Dnipro,” Yermak said in an address to the Hudson Institute think tank in the US.
“Step by step, they are demilitarizing Crimea,” he said, referring to the peninsula Russia seized in 2014. “We have covered 70 percent of the distance, and our counteroffensive is developing.”
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