(Dan Tri) – Ukrainian officials said the situation in the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka is very serious as Russian forces are surrounding the city and escalating the raid.
Ukraine’s M-2 infantry fighting vehicle north of Avdiivka (Photo: Forbes).
`Unfortunately, Russia is attacking from all directions. They are attacking with great force,` said Avdiivka Mayor Vitaly Barabash.
He said Russian forces mainly attacked with artillery, airstrikes and ground troops because Russian tanks and armored vehicles could not traverse the relatively soft terrain in winter weather.
Mr. Barabash admitted that the war is very hot and very difficult for Ukraine.
According to observers, the battle at Avdiivka has important meaning for Russia.
Mayor Barabash said there are still 950 people remaining in the city, which had an estimated pre-war population of about 33,000 people.
According to Forbes, Russia on February 9 and February 10 moved closer to the main supply route for the Ukrainian unit stationed in Avdiivka.
Four months after the Russian army stepped up its attack on Avdiivka, observers said that Ukraine’s loss of the city seemed inevitable as they were running out of weapons because of the trickle of Western aid.
There was another road running into Avdiivka to the south, but the Russians were only 1 mile away and could bombard this supply line.
Frontelligence Insight, an open source research group believed to have ties to the Ukrainian military, said in a recent report: `As Russian forces continue to pressure the Ukrainian military in Avdiivka, it becomes increasingly clear
Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov revealed that the ammunition inventory of the 110th Mechanized Brigade – the unit that is holding on to protect Avdiivka – is at a very low level.
Ukraine has tried every way to compensate for the serious shortage of artillery shells in recent times.
Knowing clearly that their opponents lacked artillery to counterattack, Russia in recent days has massively fired firepower at Avdiivka.
Avdiivka is considered a strategic city, the gateway to Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine.
Leon Hartwell, an expert at the London School of Economics, consulting organization LSE IDEAS, said that Russia’s control of Avdiivka could allow Moscow forces to consolidate positions around Bakhmut, creating favorable conditions for them to control Avdiivka.
Michael Kofman, senior expert of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, also commented that `it is likely that Avdiivka will eventually fall`.