KYIV, Ukraine, Oct 20, 2023 (AFP) – Russia has stepped up its military assault on Avdiivka in its ongoing bid to encircle and capture the eastern Ukrainian city, Ukraine’s general staff said Friday.
The frontline city in the eastern Donetsk region has been the centre of intense fighting in recent weeks, as both sides have struggled to advance along the frontlines.
“The enemy has resumed offensive actions and does not stop trying to surround Avdiivka,” the Ukrainian general staff reported in a morning briefing Friday.
Avdiivka has been a symbol of Ukrainian resistance since 2014, after it briefly fell to Russian-backed separatists.
It lies just 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Moscow-held city of Donetsk, the capital of the Donetsk region that Russia said it was annexing last September.
Ukrainian soldiers have been braced for a new assault on the city, following a failed Russian offensive earlier this month using columns of armoured vehicles and tanks from three sides.
Russia’s defence ministry said Thursday evening it had destroyed some Ukrainian military vehicles near the city and pro-Kremlin Russian military bloggers also reported heavy fighting in the vicinity.
AFP was not able to immediately verify the claims.
Built around a huge coke plant, Avdiivka had a pre-war population of around 30,000 people.
Around 1,600 remain, according to local authorities — living in basements converted into bomb shelters.
The city centre has been all but destroyed through daily Russian artillery shelling and a months-long aerial bombing campaign.
