[1/2]Commander of the Ground Forces Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi reports to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a position near the front line, amid the Russian attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, June 26, 2023. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Portal /File photo Purchase license rights
KYIV, Oct 14 (Portal) – The Russian military continued its fierce attacks on the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka on Saturday, shelling the city so heavily that emergency services were unable to recover the dead from the destroyed buildings, the city’s top administrative official said.
It was the fifth straight day the city was attacked in Ukraine’s industrial heartland of Donbass, the focal point of Moscow’s 19-month-long invasion of the neighboring country.
Both Russia and the United States have described the rise in violence around Avdiivka as a new Russian offensive.
Fighting intensified in other parts of the 1,000-kilometer-long front, with a senior Ukrainian commander saying clashes further north had “significantly worsened” in recent days.
Vitaliy Barabash, head of Avdiivka’s military administration, said residents had experienced a rare respite from the airstrikes overnight, but attacks resumed at daybreak.
“They are striking with everything they have: gunfire, artillery, multiple rocket launchers, mortars and many aircraft,” Barabash said on national television.
All rescue operations had been halted, he said, as people were reported to be trapped under the rubble of buildings leveled by shelling and airstrikes.
“Operation under such conditions cannot take place. It’s scary to walk because the street is under fire. And it is not easier to stay, since there is no place and no basement that can withstand the attacks.”
Barabash said 1,620 residents remained in Avdiivka, a town with a large coking plant and a prewar population of 32,000.
The city, 20 km (12 miles) west of the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk, has become a watchword for resistance. It repelled attacks in 2014 when Russian-backed separatists seized territory in eastern Ukraine and has been significantly fortified since then.
A four-month-old Ukrainian counteroffensive has made some progress both in the east, near the devastated town of Bakhmut, captured by Russian troops in May, and in the south, where Kiev aims to reach the Sea of Azov. But the gains were gradual.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukrainian ground forces, visited troops near Kupiansk further north and said Russian forces had regrouped after suffering losses and would attack around the village of Makiivka and toward Kupiansk.
“The enemy’s main goal is to defeat a grouping of our troops, encircle Kupiansk and reach the Oskil River,” a military platform quoted him as saying.
Syrsky said Russian forces carried out “dozens” of attacks every day but Ukrainian troops were holding their ground.
A four-month-old Ukrainian counteroffensive has made some progress in the east, near Bakhmut, and in the south, where Kiev aims to reach the Sea of Azov, but success has been gradual.
The governor of the southern Kherson region said a woman died in Russian shelling of the city of Beryslav and explosions were later reported in the city of Kherson.
Reporting by Dan Peleschuk and Ron Popeski; Edited by Helen Popper and Daniel Wallis
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