The battle for the Ukrainian bastion of Avdivka entered its fourth week this Monday without the Russian troops, who have suffered thousands of casualties, according to Ukrainian and Western sources, having managed to surround the Ukrainian defenders, while they intensify their attacks along the entire front. Oriental.
Avdivka, just 15 kilometers from Donetsk, the capital and main Russian stronghold in the region of the same name, judging by the intensity of the military actions, has become the main objective of Moscow’s troops, which since the capture of Bakhmut in May past they have not achieved any important progress.
Since last day 10 in the area of responsibility of the Ukrainian Tavria group, which includes Avdivka, Russian forces have lost six Su-25 assault aircraft, reported Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksandr Shtupun.
According to estimates by the Ukrainian military command, this month alone in the vicinity of Avdivka Moscow’s troops have lost about 6,500 troops killed and wounded, in addition to more than 400 armored vehicles.
In the last three weeks, at the price of heavy casualties, Russian troops have managed to advance north and south of Avdivka, but not enough to seize the city, practically in ruins, and completely cut off the supply lines of its defenders.
“In the east the situation remains difficult. The enemy does not give up in its efforts to achieve success and attacks our positions every day,” admitted this Monday the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian ground forces, Colonel General Oleksandr Sirski, quoted by the digital Ukrainska Pravda.
The Russian army, he added, is particularly active in the Kupiansk region, where it tries to advance in several directions at once, and in the Bakhmut area it has significantly reinforced its grouping and has moved from defense to offensive actions.
Kupiansk is an important railway junction in northeastern Ukraine, liberated approximately a year ago that Russia has been trying to retake without success for months.
“The enemy’s actions are supported by dense fire from heavy artillery and mortars. The use of kamikaze drones is constantly increasing. At the same time, thanks to the professional and coordinated actions of our soldiers, the enemy suffers heavy losses and is unable to reach its targets. objectives,” he stressed.
In its statement today, the Russian Defense Ministry did not make any reference to the situation around Avdivka.
According to the military statement, last day Russian troops repelled nine attacks by Ukrainian assault detachments on the Kupiansk front, inflicting up to 90 casualties between dead and wounded.
The Russian military command indicated that in front of Zaporizhzhia, next to the town of Robotine, its forces attacked the positions of the 65th mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with aviation, artillery and heavy flamethrowers and caused up to 220 casualties between dead and wounded. .
Russia and Ukraine today exchanged missile attacks, which kyiv’s forces concentrated on the annexed Crimean peninsula.
According to the spokesman for the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant Commander Dmitro Pletenchuk, at least 17 Russian servicemen were injured in a rocket attack against an anti-aircraft missile regiment located on the western coast of Crimea.
The Russian Defense Ministry assured that it repelled a Ukrainian attack with eight British Storm Shadow missiles against targets in Crimea, hours after preventing another attack with two naval drones in Sevastopol, the base of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea.
“All missiles were shot down by air defense systems,” the military department said on its Telegram channel.
Russia in turn attacked a ship repair plant in the Ukrainian region of Odessa with missiles, where at least two people were injured, the head of the military administration of the area, Oleg Kiper, reported on his Telegram account.