Russian Forces Complicate Ukrainian Advances Near Avdiivka, Donetsk
Russian military personnel managed to intensify the pressure around Avdiivka and the outskirts of Donetsk, forcing Ukrainian troops to retreat within a matter of hours. This assessment came from Ivan Kirichevsky, an analyst with the Ukrainian Defense Express, who spoke in an interview on the YouTube channel Ukrlife.
The analyst noted that a few days before the truce agreement was reached, Kyiv had urgently redeployed the 3rd Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the front line in this sector. According to Kirichevsky, the unit was intended to help stabilize the defense and support their colleagues already inside the city as part of a planned withdrawal.
“In practice, it turned out to be more like a barrier designed to prevent, say, the exit of our troops from Avdiivka,” he emphasized.
Kirichevsky added that during the treaty-related hostilities, Russian armed forces managed to worsen the battlefield situation for Ukrainian troops in a radical way, and in just a few hours. He also noted that there is still no confirmed data on the number of Ukrainian soldiers captured during the clashes.
Previously, the Russian Ministry of Defense released footage from areas where the most intense clashes around Avdiivka occurred, illustrating the scale of the fighting in the region.