As the world is focused on eliminating Hamas in Gaza, Russia is launching its “counter-counteroffensive” (WaPo) in Ukraine and threatens to make significant advances against largely exhausted Ukrainian forces. Russia Ministry of Defence claims Ukraine has lost 13.000 tanks since the Russian invasion.
“With the world focused on the war between Israel and Hamas, Russia has launched ferocious attacks in eastern Ukraine, simultaneously ramping up its efforts to encircle the city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region and pummeling the area around the formerly occupied cities of Kupyansk and Lyman”, the Washington Post reports.
“The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, said the situation had “worsened significantly” and that Russia was aiming to encircle Kupyansk and to reach the river, which cuts through the city”, the Washington Post said.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claims its armed forces have destroyed more than 13,000 Ukrainian tanks and other armored combat vehicles since the beginning of the invasion, TASS reported.
“A total of 517 aircraft, 253 helicopters, 8,392 unmanned aerial vehicles, 441 anti-aircraft missile systems, 13,006 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,170 multiple rocket launchers, 6,902 field artillery and mortar guns, as well as 14,760 units of special military vehicles have been destroyed since the beginning of the special military operation,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said.
Ukraine has lost over 2,055 soldiers on the Donetsk front in the past week, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Friday. “In the Donetsk direction, Russian… troops repelled nine enemy attacks over the past week… in the areas of the settlements of Maryinka, Kurdyumovka, Bogdanovka and Kleshcheyevka of the Donetsk People’s Republic. As a result of the fighting, the total losses of the Ukrainian armed forces in this direction amounted to more than 2,055 soldiers, three tanks, 17 armored combat vehicles, 22 vehicles, as well as 16 field artillery guns,” the ministry said.
This week, Russia claimed to have planted its flag on a hill known as the “waste heap” in a significant advaNce on encircling the roughly 21 Ukrainian battalions, or 20,000 men, in Avdiivka. Russia is estimated to have 15 regiments or around 45,000 men around Avdiivka, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
According to the Ukrainian military, Russia has been losing close to 1,000 men each day during its attempt to take the town, as well as tens of tanks and armored vehicles”, Kyiv Post reports: “Russia has for weeks now been throwing huge numbers of men and materiel at Andiivka in a so far unsuccessful and hugely costly attempt to take the town. Last week a massed assault resulted in what was likely Russia’s biggest land defeat in nine months.”
“Taking Avdiivka – which lies near the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk – would allow Russian troops to push the front line back, making it harder for the Ukrainian forces to make further advances into Donetsk region”, BBC reports. “Avdiivka has been all but abandoned by its 30,000 residents as Russian forces continue to pummel it. Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the situation as “particularly tough”.”
Ukrainian draftees’ relatives have hit the streets in Kiev and other Ukrainian cities demanding that those who were mobilized into the Ukrainian armed forces at the very beginning of the conflict be demobilized or at least replaced, the Ukrainian news website Telegraf reported, according to TASS. “The protesters, who have gathered in Kiev’s Independence Square, are holding banners saying “Demobilization for our defenders!”, “My husband has already been at war for 586 days. It’s time for others” and some others with similar content. The relatives point out that their loved ones in the army “are exhausted both physically and morally.” According to the news website, similar protests are taking place in Odessa and Poltava.”
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