A police officer stands in front of a damaged building, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Avdiivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, October 17, 2023. Portal/Yevhen Titov/File Photo ACKNOWLEDGE RIGHTS
KYIV, Oct 19 (Portal) – Ukrainian troops are facing a new Russian attack in the largely destroyed eastern city of Avdiivka as they make some progress in their counteroffensive in the southern theater, senior military officials said on Thursday.
General Valery Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, posted a video on Telegram in which he appeared to confer with officers in Avdiivka and in Kupiansk, a city further north where Russian forces have stepped up attacks in recent weeks.
“The enemy is not letting up when it comes to breaking through our defenses and encircling (Avdiivka),” Zaluzhniy wrote in a comment accompanying the video.
“The enemy is actively bringing assault units and large amounts of armored equipment into play, as well as using aircraft and artillery.”
Oleksandr Shtupun, spokesman for the southern group of Ukrainian forces, told national television that constant pressure was being applied to Avdiivka, about 20 km (12 miles) west of the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk.
“They regrouped there and launched new attacks,” he said.
Russian forces subjected Avdiivka to heavy attacks last week, but the shelling had eased in recent days.
Avdiivka has become the watchword of Ukrainian resistance. The city, known for its large coking plant, withstood Russian-backed separatists who captured large parts of eastern Ukraine and Ukraine in 2014.
And like Bakhmut in the northeast, which was captured by Russian forces in May, it has endured months of attacks since the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. Officials say about 1,600 residents remain from the prewar population of 32,000.
Kupiansk was recaptured by Ukrainian troops late last year in a lightning push through the country’s northeast, but Russian forces have stepped up attacks to recapture it.
Zaluzhniy said Ukrainian forces around Kupyansk “maintained their defense in the most difficult conditions.”
Russia’s reports of the fighting said its forces destroyed a command point near Avdiivka and repelled 11 Ukrainian attacks near Kupiansk.
Spokesman Shtupun said Ukrainian troops involved in the country’s four-month-old counteroffensive have made some progress in the southern theater, where they are trying to advance to the Sea of Azov to cut a land bridge linking Russian positions to the east and south connects.
He said the troops had advanced 400 meters (a quarter of a mile) southwest of the village of Verbowe in the Zaporizhia region.
Verbove is a few kilometers east of Robotyne, a village recaptured from Ukraine last month on its way south.
The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank and nonprofit research group, said Ukrainian troops appeared to have broken through on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in the southern Kherson region. Kiev did not comment on the report.
When Ukrainian troops recaptured parts of the Kherson region last year, Russian forces abandoned the largest city, also called Kherson. Now they are shelling the city from the opposite bank.
Reporting by Olena Harmash and Ronald Popeski; Edited by Timothy Heritage and Lincoln Feast
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