The Kremlin chief said on Sunday that the Russian army was advancing on the Ukrainian front, including near Avdiivka, a city in the Donetsk region. For Moscow, the capture of this city would be a symbolic victory, symbolizing Ukrainian resistance to Russian attacks since 2014.
Published on: 10/15/2023 – 12:13 p.m. Modified on: 10/15/2023 – 1:25 p.m
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The Russian army is advancing on the front lines in Ukraine, including around the city of Avdiivka (in eastern Ukraine), which was the target of a large-scale attack by Moscow troops aimed at encircling it, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday , October 15th. For their part, the Ukrainian armed forces continue to repel this offensive.
“Our troops are improving their position in almost the entire space, a fairly large space,” he said in an interview on Russian television, an excerpt of which was published on the social networks of the journalist who interviewed him, Pavel Zaroubin.
“This concerns the Koupiansk, Zaporijjia and Avdiivka regions,” Vladimir Putin added, welcoming this army’s “active defense” strategy.
These statements by the Russian president, particularly on the situation around Avdiivka, come at a time when his army said it had made progress in this sector and was determined to bring this city, less than 15 kilometers north of the capital Donetsk, under Russian control. the region of the same name, which Vladimir Putin claimed to annex more than a year ago.
A symbolic conquest for Moscow
Russia’s capture of Avdiivka, built around a large coking plant, would be primarily a symbolic rather than strategic victory, as that city represents Ukrainian resistance to Russian attacks since 2014.
In fact, in July 2014, Avdiivka briefly fell into the hands of pro-Russian separatists led and armed by Moscow before falling back under Ukrainian control.
Since then, it has marked the front line in this area and was already regularly bombed before the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022. This area is therefore particularly fortified.
In recent weeks, Russian forces have managed to take control of the north and south of the city while dominating the east and gradually tightening their influence in the hope of ultimately pushing back the Ukrainian army. Further away from the regional capital Donetsk, which is subjected to almost daily Ukrainian bombings.
However, several analysts have reported significant Russian losses in military equipment based on open source images of this attack available on social networks.
Ukraine denies Russian claims
The Ukrainian army, for its part, brushed aside all Russian claims in its daily bulletin on Sunday, asserting that its men had “repelled” Moscow’s attacks in the Avdiivka area. “The enemy keeps trying to break through our defenses but to no avail,” she said.
On Saturday, the city’s Ukrainian mayor, Vitaly Barabach, assessed the situation on site as “very tense” because, in his opinion, the Russians were trying to “encircle the city with more and more troops.”
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed that his army “stood firm” and resisted the attack.
According to Mayor Vitaly Barabach, just over 1,600 civilians still live in Avdiivka and evacuations are difficult due to the constant bombing. Before the Russian offensive, the city had 30,000 inhabitants.
The Russian attack on Avdiivka comes after four months of a difficult Ukrainian counteroffensive in the east and south, at which point the Kiev army has recaptured only a few villages despite Western military support.
Vladimir Putin reiterated on Sunday that, in his opinion, this counteroffensive had “completely failed.” “We know that in certain combat areas the opposing side is preparing new offensive operations. We see it, we know it. And we react accordingly,” he emphasized.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, several Russian attacks since Saturday morning in the Kharkiv (east) and Kherson (south) regions have left four dead and three injured, according to regional authorities.
In the Moscow-occupied Kherson region, three civilians were killed and another injured on Saturday, according to official Vladimir Saldo.
With AFP