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KYIV – Fierce fighting raged for a third day around the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, local officials said Thursday, after Russian forces launched a major attack on the city, mobilizing thousands of troops and columns of armored vehicles.
“The fighting around the city is not letting up; “The shelling does not stop both on the positions and on the city itself,” said the head of the local military administration, Vitaliy Barabash, on Ukrainian television.
Barabash said “two dozen rockets” hit the area on Wednesday. “There are dead, injured and people under the rubble,” he said.
Avdiivka, located in a geographically strategic bay near the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk, has been the target of Moscow’s military aggression since 2014 – but so far Kremlin forces have failed in repeated attempts to take it.
Barabash said Russian forces on Tuesday began “perhaps the largest Russian offensive against the city” since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Located 21 kilometers north of the city of Donetsk, Avdiivka was an industrial center before the war.
Russian troops “are trying to rush in many directions – in 10 to 12 directions at the same time, and with the support of aviation,” Barabash said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that his troops in Avdiivka are “holding their positions.” “It is the courage and unity of Ukraine that will decide how this war will end,” Zelensky posted on his Telegram channel.
Vadym Sukharevskyi, commander of Ukraine’s 59th Separate Mechanized Brigade based near Avdiivka, said in a text message to The Washington Post on Thursday that Russian forces had concentrated “up to three new brigades” toward Avdiivka.
“The goal is to conquer Avdiivka from the south and north,” said Sukharevsky.
The Russians carried out “simultaneous massive attacks by mechanized columns and foot assault groups, supported by artillery and aviation, combined with attacks on our rear and the extensive use of drones,” he said.
He also said that four Russian battalions had lost “their fighting ability” due to casualties. Other Ukrainian reports said the Russians suffered heavy losses in equipment, although none of this information could be independently verified.
On Thursday, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said geolocated footage suggests that “Russian fields of conquest around Avdiivka are concentrated in the southwest” and that Russian forces “have not yet completed the operational encirclement of the settlement and “You’ll probably have trouble with it if that’s your intention.”
The think tank said Avdiivka is a “known well-fortified and defended Ukrainian fortress, which is likely to complicate the ability of Russian forces to approach or fully capture the settlement.”
Moscow most likely intends to “fix Ukrainian forces and prevent them from moving to other front areas,” but Ukrainian officials have recognized the Russian strategy and are “likely not to over-deploy Ukrainian manpower to this axis.”
Kamila Hrabchuk in Kyiv and Serhiy Morgunov in Warsaw contributed to this report.
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