The Russian offensive around Avdiivka is slowing down after rapid successes. Ukraine has sent significant forces to protect this area.
Why is Russia slowing down its offensive near Avdiivka
Military experts name several factors that slow down the advance:
terrain that is not suitable for offensive operations;
exhaustion of Russian troops after months of fighting;
the Ukrainian army, which sent significant forces to protect the area.
According to Western press reports, Russia still retains the initiative on the battlefield, and military analysts say its forces can still break through Ukrainian defense lines due to weakened defense efforts and the absence of American military assistance.
For now, however, the fighting has turned into the inconclusive back-and-forth fighting that characterized most of the frontline fighting last year, the report said.
The capture of Avdiivka did not lead to the collapse of Ukrainian lines, the opportunity for the Russians to enter open territory or even achieve great success, said the deputy director of the US Institute for Strategic and Defense Studies Thibaut Fouillet.
Over the past 10 days, Moscow has captured only a little more than a square kilometer of land. Its fighters got into battles in the villages of Berdychi, Orlivka and Tonenke.
Russian troops are trying to push forward using small assault groups of infantry, but they are being destroyed in relatively open terrain west of Avdiivka, Black Bird Group analyst Pasi Paroinen said.
What is the situation in the Avdiyiv direction
As the spokesman of the operational and strategic grouping of the Tavriy troops, Dmytro Lykhova, stated, on March 3, our defenders repelled 14 enemy attacks in the Avdiyiv direction.
According to the confirmed data, the operational situation is stabilizing in the area of settlements that are of interest to everyone (Berdychi, Orlivka, Tonenke, — ed.). There, our forces restrain the enemy within these settlements. Fighting continues.
Lykhovi emphasized that there is no reason to talk about the capture of the specified settlements.
The battle line has its own dynamics. The enemy has some local successes in some positions. This is, for example, when firing positions are simply destroyed by artillery, then the personnel regroups and moves to other, more advantageous positions, - explained Dmytro Lykhova.
