If the battle for the city of Bakhmut marked a turning point in Ukraine due to the level of destruction, barbarity, superiority of forces and contempt for life demonstrated by the Russian army – starting with their own – the one that has been fought for the city of Avdivka will shatter all records.
“The battle in Avdivka is several times more hellish than the hottest battles of this phase of the war, which took place in Bakhmut [which fell in May 2023],” said Maxim Zhorin, deputy commander of the 3rd separate assault brigade yesterday. in his daily report on the situation at the front.
To date, the defense of Avdivka had been the priority of the new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Olexándr Sirsky, who, in concert with Volodymyr Zelensky, had sent fresh reinforcements there to defend it.
Ukraine announced this morning the withdrawal of its troops in the face of the advance of Russian forces. “Taking into account the operational situation around Avdivka, in order to avoid encirclement and preserve the life and health of the servicemen, I decided to withdraw our units from the city and move to the defense on more favorable lines,” wrote Oleksandr Sirski in his Facebook account.
“We are taking measures to stabilize the situation and maintain our positions. The life of military personnel is the highest value. We will return to Avdivka,” the head of the Army had promised hours before.
Sirski noted that the Ukrainian soldiers “did their military duty with dignity, did everything possible to destroy the best Russian military units and inflicted significant losses on the enemy in terms of personnel and equipment.”
Already on Friday, the Ukrainian Army withdrew from the Zénit air defense position, on the southeastern flank.
Avdivka was one of the main strongholds in the Donetsk region and one of the most coveted objectives of the Russian Army after taking over the cities of Bakhmut and Marinka.
Located on the outskirts of the regional capital of Donetsk, controlled by Russia since 2014, the city has suffered intense assaults by Kremlin troops since last October.
In recent days, Ukraine sent reinforcements to this front, but the commanders of the brigades fighting in Avdivka recognized that it was difficult to maintain control of the city because the Russians were throwing more and more men into combat and trying to cut supply and communication lines. of the Ukrainian forces.
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, stated the day before in Berlin that the priority in Avdivka is to protect its soldiers and limit the loss of military lives.
In recent days, qualifiers such as “Dantesque”, “hell” or “unimaginable” had been used to describe the situation in this new battle. President Zelensky already assured that the most important thing was to save as many lives as possible.
This message must be understood within the framework of the criticism that occurred in the last stage of the fight for Bakhmut, when the military leadership, especially Sirski, decided to keep the men fighting inside the city when many, including the Western allies, thought that it was better to go back. It was argued then that this strategy was intended to wear down the Russians, who lost thousands of men in the offensive.
Anastasia, an anesthesiologist from Kyiv, recalled weeks ago that “one afternoon, when Bakhmut was about to fall, 250 wounded people arrived to us in very bad condition. It was so hard that I left the hospital to get some air and found the patio full of blood. “It was a nightmare.”
Sirski thus earned the distrust of many soldiers, who nicknamed him “the butcher.” Yesterday, the commander in charge of this Ukrainian region, Olexánder Tarnavski, tried not to make the same mistake by stating: “We value every piece of Ukrainian land, but the greatest value and priority for us is the preservation of the life of a Ukrainian soldier. ”.
The access route to the city, already difficult in normal times, is under Russian fire control, alternative evacuation routes are bogged dirt roads, Russian military superiority is evident and the shortage of long-range ammunition gives greater freedom Russian aviation to attack incessantly.
The same assault brigade that had been sent as reinforcements claimed that they were being attacked from 360 degrees, and the Ukrainian army announced yesterday that they had withdrawn from several positions. “New positions have been prepared and powerful fortifications continue to be prepared, taking into account all possible scenarios,” Tarnavski assured.
Some soldiers spoke yesterday via text messages that, despite these great difficulties, the Russians are still losing many men. But they also assured that the future of the city, absolutely destroyed, will be defined in the next 48 hours. And so it has been.
At the same time, Moscow’s forces continue to attack non-stop, especially against the Coke plant, the most important industrial complex in eastern Ukraine located on the outskirts of Avdivka and which is part of the pillars of the Ukrainian defense. Videos spread on social networks show the plant destroyed and covered by clouds of smoke.
The previous major Russian offensive for control of Avdivka began in October, when hundreds of armored vehicles and thousands of men were sent to take not only the city, where 32,000 people lived until 2022, but also strategic points in its surroundings, including the fort. from Zenit, to the south of the urban area, which since 2014 has served as a containment front for the separatist forces supported by Moscow, which have the city of Donetsk under their control, just 15 kilometers away in a straight line.
“There is no longer a presence in this fort. We managed to evacuate, but with many difficulties along the way. We had casualties,” wrote yesterday one of the members of one of the brigades assigned to this front, who asked not to give his name. Since then, Ukraine had reinforced this front, managing to stop Moscow’s advance, which accelerated the intensity of the attacks from time to time.
“We destroy and destroy tanks and armored vehicles, the fields are full of Russian bodies and we have destroyed three brigades, but they have no limit,” Rostam, the commander of an FPV drone unit assigned to this front, said in mid-December. The versions given from the front spoke of a ratio of one Ukrainian to eight Russians. The number of men deployed in the area would have exceeded 50,000. “Everything has become more difficult because there is little long-range ammunition and we need it to attack them from a distance. Drones cannot act alone,” another soldier located in the area who asked to be identified as Olaq said yesterday through a messaging application.
