The Russian army is advancing on the front in Ukraine, including around the town of Avdiïvka, the target of a large-scale assault by Moscow’s troops aiming to encircle it, Vladimir Putin said on Sunday, with Ukrainian forces still ensuring for their part “repel” this offensive.
“Our troops are improving their position in almost all of this space, a fairly large space,” declared the president in an interview on Russian television, an extract of which was published on the social networks of the journalist who interviewed him, Pavel Zarubin.
“This concerns the areas of Kupiansk, Zaporizhia and Avdiïvka,” added Mr. Putin, welcoming this “active defense” strategy carried out by his army.
These statements by the Russian president, particularly on the situation around Avdiïvka, come at a time when his army said it had made progress in the sector, determined to take this town located less than 15 kilometers north of Donetsk, the capital, under Russian control, of the region of the same name, whose annexation Mr. Putin claimed more than a year ago.
In recent weeks, Russian forces have managed to take control in the north and south of the city, while dominating the east, gradually tightening the grip, with the hope, ultimately, of pushing back the Ukrainian army. further from the regional capital, Donetsk, which suffers Ukrainian bombings almost every day.
Several analysts, however, based on open source images of this assault available on social networks, have reported significant Russian losses in military equipment.
“Without success”, swears kyiv
For its part, the Ukrainian army, in its daily bulletin on Sunday, brushed aside all Russian assertions, ensuring that its men had “repulsed” Moscow’s attacks in the Avdiïvka area. “The enemy keeps trying to break through our defense, but without success,” she said.
On Saturday, the city’s Ukrainian mayor, Vitaly Barabach, judged the situation on the ground to be “very tense”, with the Russians trying, according to him, to “encircle the city” with “more and more troops”.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky swore that his army “held firm” and resisted the assault.
According to Mayor M. Barabach, a little more than 1,600 civilians remain in Avdiïvka, and evacuations there are difficult due to constant bombing. Before the Russian offensive, the city had 30,000 inhabitants.
The Russian attack on Avdiïvka comes after four months of a difficult Ukrainian counter-offensive in the east and south, the Kiev army having only recaptured a few villages at this stage despite Western military support.
Vladimir Putin once again repeated on Sunday that this counter-offensive had, according to him, “completely failed”.
Kherson bombed
A total of six people were killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine in the past 24 hours, local officials reported Sunday.
Separately, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Sunday that Ukraine had launched 27 drones during a nighttime attack against western Russia.
Authorities said 18 drones were shot down over the Kursk region, leading to speculation in the Russian press that the attack may have targeted the nearby Khalino military airfield.
Images posted on social media show burning debris just 1.5 kilometers from the air base, which was previously attacked by Ukrainian forces at the end of September.
Kursk Governor Roman Starovoit said on social media that debris had fallen in the region’s capital and the neighboring village of Zorino. No casualties have been reported.
Drones shot down
Authorities also said two other drones were shot down over Russia’s Belgorod region, but did not confirm the fate of the other seven drones. Ukrainian media later said that Kiev forces had carried out a successful attack on the Russian Krasnaya Yaruga electricity substation near the Ukrainian border.
Moscow also announced on Sunday that it had intercepted a Global Hawk drone near the Russian border in the Black Sea.
A Su-27 fighter was sent to intercept the drone, which turned away and ultimately did not enter Russian airspace, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement posted on social media.
With the Associated Press