Russia ramps up attack on industrial town
Ukrainian forces were firmly holding the line
Ukraine said Wednesday that Russian forces had ratcheted up attacks on the nearly-encircled industrial town of Avdiivka in the eastern Donetsk region as its air force destroyed nearly two dozen attack drones and several missiles in Moscow’s latest aerial assault on targets across the country.
“The enemy of the last day has significantly increased its activity. It is using armored vehicles,” Oleksandr Tarnavsky, the Ukrainian commander responsible for the territory, said.
He said Russian forces had carried out nearly 20 airstrikes, launched four missiles and thrown 56 assault waves at his forces, and fired more than 1,000 artillery rounds.
He claimed that Ukrainian forces were “firmly holding the line along the Avdiivka front,” which Agence France-Presse was unable to independently verify.
Neither side has made significant breakthroughs on the battlefield for weeks, as Moscow’s invasion drags on for a 22nd month.
Avdiivka — which was once home to around 30,000 people — has been on the front line since 2014 and is part of the Donetsk region, which the Kremlin has claimed to have annexed along with three other regions.
Russia launched a renewed bid to capture the war-battered town last month and analysts suggest Moscow’s forces have made incremental gains.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air force announced on social media that it downed all 21 Shahed-136/131 strike drones and two of three X-59 guided missiles launched by Moscow.
It said it used fighter jets, anti-aircraft and mobile air defense units to down the drones and missiles in southern and central regions of Ukraine.
It added that the third missile, which was not downed, did not reach its target. There was no immediate comment from the Russian side.
The regional governor of the western region of Khmelnytskyi said on social media that an agricultural enterprise had been damaged, without providing details.
Authorities in Moscow, meanwhile, said Wednesday they had downed a Ukrainian drone over the capital, specifying that no one had been injured and there was no damage caused by falling debris.