New Russian Avdiivka Attacks Seek To Avoid Street Combat Due To Casualties

Russia lost so many troops and so much equipment to its failed late autumn assaults on Avdiivka that, as it reorganizes and resupplies shattered units, it has changed tactics.

The Russian high command realizes that it can no longer be so wasteful with its soldiers, as too many have been lost and cannot easily be replaced. And new troops are increasingly resisting deployment to Avdiivka due to the casualty rates there. As a result, the Russians are attempting to surround Avdiivka rather than try again to take it head on. JL   

Yahoo News reports:

Russian forces continue to attack Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast but are trying to bypass the city (due to) suffering heavy losses in an attempt to encircle the front-line town just kilometers from the occupied city of Donetsk. Ukrainian forces have continued to defend the now-destroyed town and prevent Russia from securing significant gains. Russian forces want to avoid actually entering the city and engaging in the type of brutal street combat that was seen in the battle for Bakhmut.

Russian forces continue to attack Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast but are trying to bypass the city, Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, head of the Tavria group of Ukraine's military fighting on the southeastern front lines, said in an interview with BBC Ukraine published on Dec. 27.

Russia intensified its attacks against Avdiivka in early October, reportedly suffering heavy losses in an attempt to encircle the front-line town just kilometers from the occupied city of Donetsk.

Ukrainian forces have continued to defend the now-destroyed town and prevent Russia from securing significant gains.

Avdiivka remains a primary direction of Russian attacks in the area, Tarnavskyi said, but Russian forces likely want to avoid actually entering the city and engaging in the type of brutal street combat that was seen in the battle for Bakhmut.

Russian forces eventually captured the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast after months of grueling urban combat in May 2023, suffering tens of thousands of casualties in the process. Fighting around Bakhmut has nonetheless continued.

Oleksandr Shtupun, the spokesman for the Tavria group of forces, said on Dec. 20 that Russian forces had advanced between 1.5 and two kilometers since the beginning of their renewed push against Avdiivka and lost as many as 20,000 killed and wounded.

Tarnavskyi added that his forces operating in the southeast sector of the country continue to take offensive actions and refuted the notion that Ukrainian actions have switched to a primarily defensive nature.

Russian state-owned media RIA Novosti reported on Dec. 25 that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had declared the complete capture of Marinka, another suburb of Donetsk located around 30 kilometers southwest of Avdiivka.

Shtupun denied Shoigu's claim, saying that Marinka had been completely destroyed, but fighting to control the area continued. Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi said on Dec. 26 that Ukrainian troops remained in Marinka’s northern part.