On Tuesday, as Kyiv warned Moscow was ratcheting up strikes in an effort to entirely encircle the frontline town of Avdiivka in east Ukraine, Russian forces drew closer.
After months of a slower than anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive, which was initiated this summer to reclaim territory lost during Moscow’s invasion, the Russian attacks have just been launched.
An industrial town called Avdiivka had a pre-war population of about 31,000 people. There are thought to be 2,000 left.
The fact that it is situated close to the Moscow-controlled city of Donetsk, which separatist troops captured in 2014, is strategically and symbolically significant to Kyiv.
Since Kyiv held on there despite constant Russian attacks during the Kremlin’s nearly 20-month-long offensive, Avdiivka has come to represent Ukrainian resistance to Moscow.
Moscow’s forces attacked the town with artillery in the morning, according to local authorities who spoke to AFP.
“For over a year, there has been the danger that (Avdiivka) can be occupied, but now the situation has worsened rapidly,” said Vitaliy Barabash, head of the town’s administration.
He said Russian forces were trying to besiege the eastern town using “all means.”
“Our Avdiivka is under massive attacks by Russian artillery and aviation,” presidential aide Andriy Yermak later said on social media. Russian forces control territory to the south, east and north of Avdiivka.
