Avdiivka is currently the hottest fighting front in eastern Ukraine (Photo: Reuters).
Vitaliy Barabash, head of the military administration of Avdiivka, said on November 23 that Russian forces had launched "unprecedentedly fierce" attacks on the city.
"Everything is very difficult. On average there are eight to 16-18 airstrikes per day on this city. Sometimes up to 30. We don't have time to count anymore," Mr. Barabash told Channel 24 television.
"I am satisfied that the defense line has held for the past month and a half. It has not been breached yet," he said.
He said 102 residents had been evacuated over the past week along the only road out of the city.
Avdiivka is considered a strategic city, the gateway to Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. Before the conflict, the city had a population of about 32,000, but now has only about 1,500.
For over a month now, Avdiivka has been the target of fierce Russian attacks, which are seen as part of Russia’s strategy to push deeper into Ukraine’s stronghold in the East.
Reuters quoted military sources as saying that Russia appeared to have made little progress along the 1,000-km frontline. Since mid-October, they have focused on taking control of Avdiivka, a city known for its large coal plants and located near the centre of the Donetsk region.
Avdiivka is protected by fortifications erected when it was briefly controlled by Russian-backed separatists in 2014.
Meanwhile, Russian accounts of the current fighting rarely mention Avdiivka. On November 23, the Russian Defense Ministry said its forces had attacked Ukrainian units further south in the Donetsk region.
In Kherson province, on Ukraine's southern front, fighting is intensifying after Russia confirmed that Ukraine had successfully crossed the Dnieper River and landed on the Russian-controlled east bank.
This could be seen as Ukraine's biggest advance on the southern front in months and a stepping stone for Kiev to advance further towards Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014 and now serving as a logistics hub for Moscow's forces in Ukraine.
"Ukraine continues to increase its military activity along the Dnieper River, which could pose a new threat. If Ukraine succeeds, Russian forces will have a big problem," said Semyon Pegov, one of the most popular military bloggers with more than 1 million followers.
On the northeastern front, Russia is attempting to advance near the city of Kupansk in Kharkiv Oblast, including an attack on the village of Senkyvka in an attempt to push Ukrainian forces back to the Oskil River. Nighttime temperatures of minus 13 degrees Celsius have frozen the ground, making it easier for Russian vehicles to advance.
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