The Ukrainian military declared on Tuesday that its forces had repulsed Russian attacks in widely dispersed areas of the conflict and were ready for a new effort to seize the strategically important eastern town of Avdiivka.
After failing in its attempt to march on Kyiv in the early stages of the war, Russia is now fighting a plodding battle in eastern sections of the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line. Only modest success has been made by Ukraine in its counteroffensive, which was initiated in the country’s east and south in June.
In its evening report, the General Staff of Ukraine stated that its troops had repulsed 15 attacks in the northeast near Kupiansk and 18 attacks in the south near Maryinka, where fighting has been ongoing for several months.
Nine attacks were repelled in and near Avdiivka, where Moscow launched the latest of several drives in mid-October.
Vitaliy Barabash, head of Avdiivka’s military administration, said several days of rain had for the moment ruled out any new Russian advance – what he described as the “third wave”.
“We’ve had nearly a week of heavy rain,” he told the public broadcaster Suspilne. “The terrain is too difficult and equipment cannot move.”
Barabash said Russian troops had been targeting the town’s vast coking plant with artillery for the past week.
The last 16 workers keeping the plant operating had finally been evacuated, he said and only two doctors and four nurses remained in what was a town of 32,000 before Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
“These are our city’s angels,” he told the television.
Avdiivka has become a hallmark of Ukrainian resistance – and is seen as a gateway if Ukraine is to retake main areas in the east, including the town of Donetsk, 20 km away.
Occupied briefly when Russian-backed separatists seized large areas of eastern Ukraine in 2014, the town was retaken by Ukrainian forces who subsequently erected substantial fortifications around it.
Russian accounts of the fighting said Moscow’s troops had launched strikes on Ukrainian men and equipment in villages near the eastern town of Bakhmut, seized by Russian forces last May.
Reuters could not independently confirm battlefield accounts made by either side.
