Ukrainian troops were “urgently redeployed” to reinforce the garrison of Avdiïvka, the epicenter of fighting and bombings which made this town in eastern Ukraine a “hell” under Russian assaults.
In Russia, a bombing blamed on kyiv on a shopping center in Belgorod left at least six dead and 17 injured, an apparent response after new Russian missile attacks fired on Ukraine overnight.
A few days before the second anniversary of the Russian invasion, Ukraine is facing multiple challenges: Russian forces are on the offensive, American military aid is ever more uncertain and the Ukrainian army is short of men, weapons, ammunition.
The situation is deteriorating day by day, particularly in Avdiïvka, a city in Donbass ravaged by fighting, where the position of the Ukrainian defenders is increasingly precarious in the face of Russian forces who launched an offensive in October to complete the encirclement of the city.
“The third assault brigade confirms (there) having been urgently redeployed” as reinforcement, this unit indicated on Telegram on Thursday in a message titled “the hell of Avdiïvka”.
This brigade claimed to be carrying out counterattacks on neighborhoods conquered by the Russians, estimating the opposing forces in its area at “around seven brigades”, or several thousand people, with reinforcements continuing to arrive.
“We are forced to fight 360 degrees against new brigades,” said unit commander Andrii Biletsky.
According to the Telegram channel DeepState, close to the Ukrainian army and followed by more than 600,000 people, Russian forces advanced on Wednesday to the north and south of Avdiïvka in their attempt to cut the city in two, the situation “continuing to deteriorate”. deteriorate due to incessant shooting.”
Belgorod targeted again
The fighting is complicating the supply and evacuation of troops there, although a “reserve logistics artery prepared in advance” is being used, Dmytro Lykhovy, a military spokesman in the area, told television.
According to him, the Russian army also massed an even larger number of troops than at Avdiivka in the Orikhiv sector, in southern Ukraine.
Russia also carried out a new attack during the night using 26 missiles, 13 of which were shot down. It left at least one dead and nine injured – three in Lviv, in the west, and six in Zaporizhia, in the south of the country -, according to the authorities.
In addition, over the past 24 hours, eight people were killed and 13 injured in the Donetsk region, according to police.
On the Russian side, a deadly strike attributed to Ukrainian forces targeted Belgorod, capital of the eponymous region bordering Ukraine.
Six people were killed, including a child, and 17 people were injured, including 4 children, the Russian Ministry of Health said on Telegram in an updated report published in the middle of the afternoon.
Homes and a small shopping center were notably damaged in this town which had already been hit at the end of December by the deadliest Ukrainian attack on Russian soil with 25 dead and more than 100 injured.
An oil depot also caught fire overnight in the Kursk border region following a Ukrainian drone attack, according to Russian authorities.
Zelensky seeking help
As for the economic cost of two years of war, Ukraine will need $486 billion for recovery and reconstruction, according to a new joint estimate from the Ukrainian government and the World Bank released Thursday.
Ukrainian forces have been on the defensive along most of the front since the failure of their counter-offensive last summer. They say they lack men, weapons and ammunition due to lack of sufficient Western support.
To get more help, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will travel to Germany and France on Friday to meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Emmanuel Macron, respectively.
In Paris, Mr. Zelensky will sign a security agreement between France and Ukraine. In Germany, he will deliver a speech at the Munich Conference and meet with US Vice President Kamala Harris.
The United States, the main donors to Ukraine, fails to adopt a new aid package for Ukraine, the Republicans led by Donald Trump, the former president and presidential candidate, say opponent.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed Thursday that this blockage has an “impact” on the battlefield.