Moscow’s main goals for its war in Ukraine over the past 12 months have been “successfully completed,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has said, with few indications the grueling conflict will come to an end in the new year.
Russia’s “main” goal throughout 2023 was to “thwart the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian armed forces,” Moscow’s defense chief said in a readout published by Russian media on Tuesday.
“This task has been successfully completed,” Shoigu said.
Kyiv launched its counteroffensive against Russian forces in southern and eastern Ukraine in early June, hoping to make sweeping gains along the front lines as Ukraine managed to do in the fall of 2022.
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But Ukraine quickly conceded that its operations had kicked off later than intended, allowing Russian forces to dig in, building up fearsome defenses and laying extensive mines in Ukraine’s path. Kyiv blamed the slow arrival of critical Western aid for the sluggish start to its ambitious operations.
The anticipated Ukrainian advances never materialized—although Ukraine did reclaim a smattering of villages across the front lines, and has carried out a series of missile and drone strikes in Crimea that proved embarrassing and disruptive to Russia’s military. But Ukraine has been keen to bat away suggestions that the fighting has now reached a stalemate.
“We wanted faster results. From that perspective, unfortunately, we did not achieve the desired results,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted earlier this month. But Russia also struggled to fend off Ukraine’s attacks on the Moscow-controlled Crimea and has hemorrhaged resources in the war-torn country. Ukraine has also launched ground operations on the east bank of the Dnieper River that has long marked the frontlines cutting through the southern Kherson region.
Ahead of the winter months that dragged many mechanized maneuvers to a halt, Russia launched an onslaught on the Donetsk town of Avdiivka, throwing resources and manpower at the heavily defended Ukrainian town. Avdiivka is a Ukrainian stronghold that has spent nearly a decade on the front lines, and it would mark a significant tactical and symbolic victory for Russia if its forces succeeded in taking it.
Russia is believed to have sustained eye-watering casualties and sky-high equipment losses in its fight for Avdiivka but has made creeping gains around the town. Ukraine has battled bitterly to defend it but is also thought to have paid dearly.
Russian forces advanced east of the village of Stepove, just north of Avdiivka, on December 24, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think tank.
Ukrainian soldiers are still “steadfastly holding the defense,” Ukraine’s military said on Tuesday, saying that its forces had repelled 40 Russian attacks over the past day around Avdiivka and nearby parts of the frontline.
Ukraine also fended off six Russian attacks around the Donetsk town of Marinka, the Ukrainian armed forces said on Tuesday.
Moscow had said on Monday that its fighters were in full control of the destroyed town, and Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday its southern group of forces had captured the town. Some Ukrainian officials denied this, saying fighting was still ongoing in the settlement that had been “razed to the ground.”
But Ukraine’s top soldier, General Valery Zaluzhnyi, appeared to confirm on Tuesday that Ukrainian soldiers had retreated to the outskirts of Marinka, according to Ukrainian media reports. Zaluzhnyi said Ukrainian soldiers remained in the northern part of Marinka, according to Ukrainska Pravda.
Newsweek has reached out to Ukrainian military officials for comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.