Russia tightens noose on Ukraine’s city of Avdiivka, where outnumbered defenders hold out
Ukrainian troops in Avdiivka struggled Friday with severe ammunition shortages as Russian forces tightened the noose around the strategic eastern city in an intense Kremlin push for a battlefield win.
The timing is critical as Russia is looking for a morale boost ahead of the second anniversary on Feb. 24 of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the March presidential election in Russia.
The four-month battle in Avdiivka appeared to be coming to a head as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday made another trip outside his country, hoping to press his country’s Western allies to keep providing military support.
White House national security spokesman John F. Kirby said Thursday that Russian forces are beginning to overwhelm Ukrainian defenses in the eastern city. He said Avdiivka is at risk of falling to Russia, a development he blamed “in very large part” on the fact that Ukrainian forces are running out of artillery ammunition.
The United States is Ukraine’s biggest single supporter, but some $60 billion for Kyiv is being held up by opposition by some Republican lawmakers.
Alexei Navalny, Russia’s best-known opposition figure, has died in a prison colony, authorities say. Biden and other Western leaders blame Putin.
Street fighting was underway in the bombed-out city, where Ukrainian troops are outnumbered 7 to 1, according to Oleksandr Borodin, press officer of the 3rd Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces.
The 3rd Brigade said on its social media account Friday that its soldiers are holding out at the huge Avdiivka Coke Plant. Russian warplanes have been dropping about 60 bombs a day, relentlessly shelling the area and launching assaults with armor and infantry, the brigade said. A video showed dense black smoke over the factory, said to be caused by burning fuel oil reservoirs. The post said: “Poisonous smog spreads all over the plant.”
Russian media reported the Kremlin’s forces are making extensive use of plane-launched glide bombs, which fly at a shallower angle, to batter Ukrainian positions.
Russian troops conducted 33 assaults in Avdiivka over the previous 24 hours, Ukraine’s General Staff said Friday.
The Russians have been trying to capture the city since October but made only incremental progress before a recent push.
The Ukrainian defenders prepared for “any possible scenarios,” according to Brig. Gen. Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, head of the Ukrainian forces in Avdiivka. Ukrainian officials have not ruled out a withdrawal from the city.
Zelensky said in Berlin that his troops are “heroically [defending] strategic points and logistic routes that might allow the enemy to advance.”
Tarnavskyi said Friday that some units had pulled back as part of an effort to regroup, save lives and resupply defensive positions. The positional changes would not hand any advantage to the Russians, he said on social media.
Heavily fortified with a web of tunnels and concrete fortifications, Avdiivka lies in the northern suburbs of Donetsk, a city in a region of the same name that Russian forces partially occupy. Capturing Avdiivka could be a timely boost for Moscow and serve as a possible springboard for Russia to drive deeper into the region.
Fewer than 1,000 people remain in the city, according to the Donetsk regional governor, Vadym Filashkin. The city, with a prewar population of about 31,000, is today a bombed-out shell of what it once was.
Aerial video of Avdiivka obtained by the Associated Press in December showed an apocalyptic scene and hinted at Russia’s staggering losses, with the bodies of about 150 soldiers lying scattered along tree lines where they sought cover.
However, the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said that taking Avdiivka would be more of a symbolic win for the Kremlin and would not bring significant changes to the 930-mile front line that has barely budged in recent months.
On his Europe trip on Friday, Zelensky signed a bilateral security agreement with Germany and planned to sign another with France, securing a strong signal of long-term backing.
Zelensky met in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who said Berlin was providing an additional $1.2-billion package of military aid, including 36 howitzers, 120,000 rounds of artillery ammunition and two more air-defense systems.
The German agreement says Germany and Ukraine “will work together on ensuring a sustainable force capable of defending Ukraine now and deterring future aggression in the future.”
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