Every day, the Ukrainian military destroys hundreds of criminals of the occupation army of the Russian Federation in the Avdiivka region of Donetsk region, but the command throws new and new units of the occupiers into battle.
What is known about the situation in the Avdiivka area
Journalists of the publication note that the Ukrainian military in the Avdiyivka region is exhausted and unable to defeat all the enemy forces.
Step by step they are capturing our positions, the deputy battalion commander of the 47th mechanized brigade, Lieutenant Oleksandr Shyrshyn admits.
His unit maintains a defence on a kilometre-long area.
The material states that the command of the occupying army of the Russian Federation is not prepared to move forward if there are significant losses.
Tens of thousands of Russian troops were involved in assaults in the Avdiyivka area for several weeks.
Russia's attempt to encircle the city has become the most significant battle in Russian President Vladimir Putin's war for the subjugation of Ukraine this fall.
If Avdiyivka is captured, the criminal Russian army will be able to advance further through the territory of the Donetsk region.
The command of the Armed Forces planned to return almost 20% of the territories occupied by Russia during the summer months of the counteroffensive.
The Ukrainian military struck the human resources and military equipment of the Russian army, as well as the strategic objects of the enemy's logistics. Still, during the counteroffensive, they lost several brigades and most of the ammunition received from Western partners, but they did not achieve the desired results.
Even before the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces reached its peak, the criminal army of the Russian Federation gathered new forces for its offensive in the east of Ukraine.
According to the authors of the material, the standoff in the Avdiivka area could mark the beginning of a months-long defence for Ukraine because the uncertainty of the delivery of military aid, in particular, ammunition from partners, limits the capabilities of the Ukrainian military.
And the Kremlin feels this weakness.
The criminal army of the Russian Federation failed the first wave of attacks in the Avdiyivka region during October.
Columns of tanks and armoured personnel carriers became victims of mines, drones and artillery. The Russians changed tactics, sending waves of infantry forward in small groups.
Both armies struggle to manoeuvre in open, mined terrain under a sky buzzing with drones.
Why does the Russian army suffer such significant losses in the Avdiivka area
The difference is this: Russia, whose population is almost four times that of Ukraine, can afford to lose thousands of soldiers for minor gains.
As a result of the enormous losses suffered by Russia during the almost two-year war, its ground forces relied on old equipment and poorly trained conscripts, limiting their offensive potential to storming small towns.
Russia lost tens of thousands of men in the 10-month Battle of Bakhmut, its last notable victory.
However, it is tough for Ukraine to recover its losses after the summer counteroffensive and the losses resulting from the defence of Bakhmut.
The number of Ukrainian casualties is kept in the strictest secrecy, but fresh graves and overcrowded hospitals throughout the country testify to heavy losses.
According to the military analyst, retired Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, the number of Ukrainian front-line units is only 20-40%.
Due to the lack of infantry, those who remained were tired. There are practically no opportunities for rest and rotation, Romanenko notes.
The Russians have been trying to capture Avdiivka since 2014, but the very well-fortified city helps the Ukrainian military put up fierce resistance.
In Avdiivka, where more than 30,000 people once lived, only about 1,400 residents are left.
Russian troops surrounded Avdiivka from three sides and occupied the only hill — a wide tericon in the northeast, using it to deter Ukrainian armoured vehicles with anti-tank missiles.
Waves of Russian infantry are trying to storm the Avdiivka coke plant and have entered the city's southeastern outskirts.
According to the plan of the Russian troops near Avdiivka, they should advance to the north and south and then cut off the city from the supply routes.
Avdiivka's life path was reduced to less than 4 kilometres between the jaws of the Russian offensive.
According to Ukrainian service members, the attacking Russian infantry is mostly poorly trained, often gets lost in a bunch and becomes an easy target.
They attack like zombies. Some of them shine with headlights — a happy moment for any machine gunner, private Bohdan Lysenko says, who is firing a 25-mm automatic cannon on an American Bradley fighting vehicle as part of the 47th brigade.
Drone images show fields littered with the bodies of Russian foot soldiers hit by artillery, including US-supplied cluster munitions. But the Russians continue their offensive.
They are not stupid. This is a strategy. They look for weak points and then go there. We don't have enough ammunition, but they have enough people, commander of the "Bradley" Corporal Mykhailo Kotsyurba explains .
Some Russians are surrendering rather than continuing their near-suicidal attacks. They often say that they entered Ukrainian positions by accident.
In Russia, voluntary surrender is considered a crime.
Our commanders, despite the circumstances, receive orders to occupy positions that cannot be held. That is why we have such losses among ordinary soldiers. We are treated like used material, Andrii Bednyaev said, an infantryman of the 114th Guards Motorized Brigade of the Russian Federation.
Bednyaev said he was captured when he was disoriented after the drone exploded and a brick wall fell on him.
To the north of Avdiivka, the Russians have overcome the railway track, for which there is a fierce struggle, and now they need to capture the villages of Stepove and Berdychi to advance.
Soldiers fight and die to keep the landings under control, crossing abandoned fields covered with funnels.
