Russia redoubles attacks in strategic zone for both sides in Donbass

O Ukrainian General Staff reported 15 enemy attacks in the last 24 hours on Avdivka, but said the Russians still had a lot to do to close the several-kilometer corridor that brings reinforcements and supplies to the city’s defenders.

The fight is fierce for control of the industrial areas to the north and south of the city, where there is a coke factory and a quarry, respectively.

According to the Ukrainian press, six heavily equipped Russian motorized brigades, supported by aviation and heavy artillery, have been participating in this offensive for three weeks.

“The enemy’s objectives are very primitive. Putin (the Russian President) needs some kind of positive result, since for a long time they have inflated” the situation at the front, Mikhailo Podoliak, advisor to the Ukrainian presidency, said today on a television channel.

“They use frontal attacks. They even try to minimize the loss of military equipment, since anything counts, as long as human life…” said Podoliak.

Although Russian war reports do not report on the progress of the offensive on Avdivka, Kiev also reported about 20 attacks on Marinka, the other strategic town located south of the city of Donetsk.

According to the Ukrainian Army, its troops destroyed a column of Russian armor that was heading towards Krasnogorovka, not far from Marinka.

Ukraine today officially entered winter time, synonymous with low temperatures, impassable roads and logistical problems for both sides, which means that time is running against the offensives of both the Ukrainians and the Russians.

The loss of Avdivka, located a short distance from Donetsk airport, would be far more significant than the defeat at Bakhmut, the town taken in May by Russian Wagner Group mercenaries.

This is why two Ukrainian motorized brigades that fought in Zaporijia were mobilized to prevent its fall.

Experts warn that defeat in this battle would block Ukrainian troops in the south and nullify territorial gains in the north.

Although the media does not mention it and President Volodymyr Zelensky demands continued progress in his speeches, the reality on the ground seems to confirm that the counteroffensive in the south has slowed down and even frozen in recent weeks, with only eight attacks in the last 24 hours in more of a thousand kilometers of front, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

For Russia, the current offensive is also vital, as the current production rate of its military industry will not allow it to launch another large-scale offensive until 2025, according to analysts.

More than two months after the death of the head of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian press reported the return to the battlefield of the mercenaries, with a unit from the Arbat special battalion, which fights in Avdivka, made up exclusively of members of the group.

Ukrainian sources also confirmed the presence of these mercenaries in Donetsk, who had agreed to sign contracts with Russian Defense.

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