Russian military suffered 4,000 casualties in fight for Avdiivka, Ukraine
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Russian forces fighting for control of an embattled city in eastern Ukraine have likely sustained some of their worst casualty rates this year — with estimated losses of at least 4,000 troops.
In a Saturday call with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Ukraine Defense Minister Rustem Umerov revealed the staggering death tally in Avdiivka, according to a Telegram post by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
The United Kingdom’s Defense Ministry said Moscow had deployed eight brigades in its campaign for Avdiivka, home to a sprawling coke plant and roughly 16 miles from the Russian-occupied Donetsk, but those forces have “likely suffered some of Russia’s highest casualty rates of 2023 so far.”
The Ukrainian General Staff said in its Saturday battlefield report that Russian forces were continuing to try and encircle Avdiivka, but Kyiv had continued to repel the Moscow troops.
“The Ukrainian soldiers are standing their ground, inflicting major losses on the enemy,” it wrote.
Russia launched its assault on the embattled Donetsk oblast city in mid-October, slamming Ukrainian forces with repeated artillery assaults along with a barrage of attacks by troops and armored vehicles, according to local and military authorities in Ukraine.
President Vladimir Zelesnky boasted Friday that in Russia’s offensive push for Avdiivka, Moscow lost “at least a brigade,” which varies in size but can be as many as 8,000 troops.
“The invaders made several attempts to surround Avdiivka, but each time our soldiers stopped them and threw them back, causing painful losses,” Zelesnky said.
Main sites of the Ukrainian counteroffensive
- Melitopol: Kyiv’s forces continued advancing toward the city of Melitopol on the Sea of Azov in the south. If Ukraine were to claw back Melitopol, it could bring it closer to breaking through the Russia-held land corridor linking the annexed Crimean Peninsula to mainland Russia, splitting Moscow’s forces in two and cutting their supply lines.
- Zaporizhzhia: Intense battles raged in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, where US officials said Kyiv has launched its “main thrust” aimed at retaking 20% of its occupied territory. While Moscow claimed to have repelled Ukraine’s attacks involving dozens of armored vehicles and inflicted heavy losses on Kyiv’s troops, the Institute for the Study of War reported that the Ukrainian offensive appeared to have broken through some Russian defenses.
- Donetsk: Ukrainian troops on Thursday recaptured the strategically significant village of Staromaiorske located in the Donetsk region south of a cluster of settlements along the Mokri Yaly river that Kyiv had seized at the start of the counteroffensive. Control of the village could open the way for Ukraine to push southward toward the coast.
- Bakhmut: Ukrainian forces were said to be “gradually moving forward” near Bakhmut in the east, where Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar claimed Russians were dying at a rate eight times higher than Ukrainians. Geolocated footage showed that Kyiv’s troops have made gains south of the town of Klishchiivka, and additional fighting was reported near the settlements of Kudriumivka and Andriivka.
Russia’s concentrated assault on Avdiivka has come nearly five months after Ukraine launched its counteroffensive in the south and eastern territories currently held by Moscow.
The Institute for the Study of War, an American think tank, said Thursday that Moscow’s forces have sustained severe losses in equipment in their campaign for control of Avdiivka, which “will likely undermine Russian offensive capabilities over the long term.”
The Biden administration said this week that Russian military leaders were executing soldiers who refused to follow orders and threatening to kill entire units if they tried to retreat from the battlefield in Ukraine.
With Post wires
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