12/23/2023 12:18 pm (current 12/23/2023 1:03 pm)
Ukraine: Fierce fights for Avdiivka ©APA/AFP
According to the General Staff in Kiev, the Ukrainian armed forces repelled new attacks by Russian troops near the city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region and on the left bank of the Dnipro. Russia continues to try to encircle Avdiivka with its troops, its headquarters in Kiev said on Saturday. “Our fighters are maintaining a firm defense and inflicting significant losses on the occupants,” the statement continues.
There have been fights across the city for months. According to the General Staff, the Russian army is also unable to expel the Ukrainian troops that have established themselves on the southern (left) bank of Dnipro.
Ukrainian air defense also reported that numerous Russian drone attacks were again repelled. Once again, the Odessa area on the Black Sea was affected by attacks.
Western experts at the US Institute for War Studies (ISW) in Washington assume that Russia is maintaining its maximum objectives in the war, wants to occupy more areas and is not defeated. They also reacted to statements by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who had already spoken of Moscow's “strategic defeat” in an interview with the dpa news agency. Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin could no longer achieve his war goals, Stoltenberg said.
Analysts, on the other hand, pointed out that Putin was simply postponing the goals he didn't achieve this year. Russian failures in Ukraine are not a permanent situation. According to ISW, Western assessments that Russia is not succeeding should not lead to a reduction or cessation of foreign support for Ukraine. Russia is betting that the West will reduce its aid to Ukraine, it has been said.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock defended Western support for Ukraine. “The fact that Putin's original plan to take Kiev and murder, expel or subjugate more than 40 million people did not work is due to the incredible courage of Ukrainians in defending their country,” the green politician told “Potsdamer Latest News” (Saturday). . “And also our support and that of so many other countries that do what is human: help the victim and not the aggressor by turning a blind eye.”
This winter, in areas occupied by Russia and in unprotected locations, one can see what would have threatened Ukraine and neighboring countries like Moldova if the EU and most of the world had not stood united on Ukraine's side, Baerbock said. “Putin is specifically attacking power plants, electricity distribution centers and oil pipelines so that at minus ten degrees the water supply freezes and people die of thirst and freeze to death,” he warned. “He wants to destroy Ukraine and that's why we will support her as long as she needs us.”