The Russian Army persists in its efforts to take the Avdivka bastion, the scene these days of the bloodiest fighting since 2014, despite the resistance of its Ukrainian defenders and the fall of winter, which slows down operations.
The Ukrainian General Staff admitted this Friday that Russian troops in the past day alone launched a total of 20 attacks against Avdivka, a small town reduced to ruins that is a few kilometers from Donetsk, the capital of the homonymous region, which Russia controls. for a decade now.
According to the Ukrainian military, the Russian Army has not been able to advance on the flanks to surround Avdivka, which is why it now insists on frontal attacks, with the consequent increase in casualties in its ranks.
Russian troops also intensified their offensive actions in the Bakhmut, Marinka and Kupiansk sectors, all on the eastern and northeastern front, where Ukrainian forces have gone on the defensive in recent weeks.
Ukrainian experts and Russian opponents in exile agree that Russian President Vladimir Putin is eager to show off a victory before the March 2024 Russian presidential elections are called, which will take place in mid-December.
And the Russian forces have not made any notable progress since the capture of Bakhmut last May by the mercenaries of the Wagner Group, dismantled after the death three months later of its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in an air accident that has not yet been clarified.
It is taken for granted that Putin will run for re-election, since the Constitution was modified in 2020 so that he could do so, but his candidacy without military progress would clearly lose strength.
Russia not only attacks on the eastern front line, but also bombs the Ukrainian rear. According to kyiv, during the past twenty-four hours the Russian Army shelled 120 towns near the front.
But Ukraine is not left in debt, since according to British Intelligence (BI), Russian forces continue to suffer “massive casualties from long-range precision Ukrainian strikes far from the front line.”
The IB referred in particular to a Ukrainian attack on the 10th against a convoy of trucks that was circulating about 20 kilometers from the front line in the Kherson region (southern), in which more than 70 Russian soldiers died.
Russia denounced this Friday a massive Ukrainian attack with drones against the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
“Last night, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using fixed-wing drones against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation was thwarted,” the Russian Defense Ministry reported on its Telegram account.
According to the military statement, 13 drones were shot down over the territory of Crimea and others in the Volgograd region, located about 200 kilometers east of Ukraine, with which it does not share a border.
Defense did not report any possible victims or damage on the ground as a result of the fall of the unmanned devices.
Hours after the attack on Crimea, the Russian Black Sea Fleet, whose main base is located on the peninsula, carried out an exercise to check the effectiveness of the ships’ air defense systems and their coordination with those on land in the face of a massive attack. with drones.
“The training objectives were successfully met,” the Russian Navy said in a statement.
This week Germany announced a €1.3 billion military aid package to Ukraine, which includes the supply of three-dimensionally printed Titan Falcon long-range drones.
In addition, Berlin will provide Ukraine with another Patriot anti-aircraft missile system, which will be deployed this winter to strengthen its defensive capabilities against attacks against the country’s energy infrastructure.