Offensive operations by Russian forces around Avdiivka have slowed significantly following their capture, it has been reported, with a map showing the current state of play in Ukraine’s Donetsk oblast.
Following months of fierce fighting that have seen huge Russian losses, Ukraine announced that it had retreated from Avdiivka. Russian media touted its biggest gain in the full-scale invasion since capturing Bakhmut in May 2023.
But in the days since, Russian attacks had greatly decreased as Vladimir Putin’s forces regroup and conduct clearing operations in the town. That’s according to Dmytro Lykhoviy, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Tavriisk Group of Forces, who said there was far less Russian shelling and aviation activity in the area.
Kostiantyn Liberov/Getty Images
Ukrainian officials said their forces have withdrawn to a new line of defense that had been prepared and fortified.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Monday that Russian forces will probably have a pause before resuming significant offensive operations in the Avdiivka direction or transfer to the area reinforcements from other sectors of the front to prevent operations near Avdiivka from culminating—the point at which continuing an attack is no longer possible.
Moscow has reserves to reinforce other sectors, but the ISW said there was no indication that the Russian command is moving them toward Avdiivka at the moment.
One of the latest maps by the think tank shows how geolocated footage posed on February 17 indicates Russian advances in northern, western and southeastern Avdiivka and that Moscow’s troops had seized the Avdiivka Coke Plant in the city and that the Ukrainian defensive perimeter is now west of the settlement, which had a pre-war population of 30,000.
Institute for the Study of War
Lykhoviy said that Russian command will probably soon transfer forces around Avdiivka to other parts of the frontline, while Ukrainian Khortytsia Group of Forces spokesperson Captain Ilya Yevlash said it would probably take at least a week for this to happen.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment.
Russia’s capture of the city cost tens of thousands of soldiers’ lives and huge amounts of military equipment and Ukraine is also believed to have suffered high personnel losses.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on Monday that Russian forces are “taking advantage” of Western delays in additional military aid as a U.S. package remains deadlocked in Congress.
Following a visit to the frontline in northeastern Kupiansk, Zelensky said “the situation is extremely difficult in several parts of the frontline, where Russian troops have amassed maximum reserves.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.