The situation in Avdeevka as of 21.00 on February 16, 2024 was reported by the commander of the Tavria OSV, Alexander Tarnavsky.
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Heavy fighting continues within the city limits. The enemy continues to launch artillery attacks and massive bombing strikes, practically wiping the city off the face of the earth.
The enemy throws all his reserves into the assault, overturning them in other directions, and is trying to squeeze through our defenses.
Since the beginning of the day, in the Avdeevka area, our defenders have repelled more than 30 Russian attacks. The aggressor carried out 20 airstrikes and more than one and a half hundred artillery attacks. In addition to Avdeevka, almost 20 surrounding settlements were subjected to enemy artillery and mortar shelling, including Novobakhmutovka, Berdich, Lastochkino, Nevelskoye and others.
Ukrainian soldiers maneuver out of the destroyed positions and gain a foothold on new lines of defense.
I emphasize that the priority is preserving the lives of our soldiers. Therefore, if necessary, they move to new positions. Unfortunately, during one of these excursions, several of our soldiers were captured. We will fight for the liberation of every brother brother,” Tarnavsky wrote.
The evacuation of the wounded is complicated by continuous shelling, but is being carried out. By now, the necessary reserves have been transferred to our defenders. The supply of ammunition also remains effective. Units maintain certain lines of defense in accordance with the operational situation.
The fire continues at the Avdeevka coke plant, where Russian terrorists, as a result of shelling, set fire to a tank with naphthalene residues and bitumen tar in the warehouse.
Russia lost 400 pieces of equipment during the assault on Avdeevka, British intelligence reported.
Russia has been making a focused effort to capture the city since October 2023 and has made gradual, steady progress in seizing the city, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces are strengthening their response, the review says.
According to estimates provided by the British Ministry of Defense intelligence, during the campaign to capture Avdeevka, Russia lost at least “400 tanks, combat vehicles and other equipment, as well as probably thousands of personnel.”
Since the beginning of the year alone, the losses of the occupiers in the Avdiivka direction amounted to 20 thousand 18 people, 199 tanks and 481 armored combat vehicles (January 1 – February 15, 2024).
Despite the losses that the 3rd separate assault brigade inflicted on Russian troops, having defeated two brigades since the redeployment to Avdeevka, the ratio of forces in the defense of the city remains 1 to 7. The Russian Army continues to draw up reserves, a representative of the 3rd separate assault told Public . Alexander Borodin.
The head of the Intelligence Center of the Estonian Defense Forces, Colonel Ants Kiviselg, said that as the so-called presidential elections in Russia approach, it will increasingly try to achieve “a certain visible tactical victory that can be promoted and presented in the media as a general victory in the war in Ukraine.”
Such a victory, he added, could be the capture of Avdiivka. At the same time, if this does not happen before the elections, discontent may set in in the Russian armed forces and society, says the head of Estonian intelligence.
Kiviselg told a briefing that Avdiivka accounted for half of the military clashes in the Donetsk region over the past week.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.