Ukraine’s Avdiivka at risk of falling to Russian forces: White House
- Ukraine rushes battle-hardened troops to Avdiivka, calling situation ‘extremely critical’
- The battle for the industrial hub has been one of the bloodiest of the two-year war
Ukraine has rushed soldiers to the embattled eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, which the White House said was at risk of falling to Russian forces after months of heavy fighting.
“Avdiivka is at risk of falling into Russian control,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington on Thursday, citing Ukrainian reports.
“In very large part, this is happening because the Ukrainian forces on the ground are running out of artillery ammunition. Russia is sending wave after wave of conscript forces to attack Ukrainian positions.”
Russia is trying to encircle and capture Avdiivka nearly two years after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Kyiv’s foothold in the town appears increasingly shaky, with its supply lines threatened.
Capturing Avdiivka is key to Russia’s aim of securing full control of the two provinces that make up the industrial Donbas region, and could hand President Vladimir Putin a battlefield victory to hold up to voters as he seeks re-election next month.
“In Avdiivka a manoeuvre is under way in some places to withdraw our units to more advantageous positions, in some places to force (the Russians) out of positions,” Ukrainian military spokesman Dmytro Lykhoviy said in televised comments.
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“Therefore the key announcement with regards to all this is that supplies to Avdiivka and evacuations from there are difficult.”
He said the military had activated a “reserve logistics artery” that had been prepared in advance.
“The situation on the front – Avdiivka, the east in general. We are doing everything possible to ensure that our soldiers have sufficient managerial and technological capabilities to preserve as many Ukrainian lives as possible,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.
One of Ukraine’s most prominent fighting units, the Third Assault Brigade, said it had been rushed to Avdiivka to reinforce Kyiv’s troops there.
The brigade, which comprises assault infantry, said the situation in Avdiivka was “hell” and “threatening and unstable”, but that it had conducted a raid against Russian forces in parts of the town and inflicted heavy casualties.
The brigade took part in a counteroffensive in eastern Ukraine last summer and fought in the battle of Bakhmut, another town in eastern Ukraine that held out for many months before being captured last May.
“The enemy is continuing the active rotation of its troops (around Avdiivka) and is deploying new forces and equipment to the town,” the brigade said on the Telegram messenger.
“The situation at the moment the brigade was brought in was extremely critical.”
The unit’s deputy commander, Maksym Zhorin, said the fighting was much fiercer than the battle of Bakhmut and that Kyiv’s forces were outnumbered and outgunned in Avdiivka.
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Russian forces have been trying to advance on the town since October and have surrounded it on three sides, leaving limited resupply routes for the Ukrainian troops dug in there.
Lykhoviy said Russia had concentrated around 50,000 troops on the Avdiivka front, and fighting in the city involved Russian tactical assault groups that were small but growing in size.
“Armoured groups in the form of tanks and other armoured vehicles are joining them,” he said.
Avdiivka, where fewer than 1,000 residents are left of a pre-war population of 32,000, lies just north of the Russian-held bastion of Donetsk which Ukraine lost control of in 2014 when Moscow’s proxies began an uprising.
The town has a vast coking plant that has stopped functioning during the war.
Both sides see Avdiivka as key to Russia gaining full control of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces and as a gateway to Donetsk city, residential areas of which have been shelled by Ukraine, sometimes from Avdiivka, Russian officials say.
But tired Ukrainian troops, some of whom have been fighting for almost two years and are deployed along a sprawling 1,000km (620-mile) front, are facing critical shortages of artillery rounds.
As the US Congress has not yet passed supplementary legislation for further aid to Ukraine, the urgently needed artillery shells cannot be delivered.
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“The cost of inaction by the Congress is stark. And it’s being borne on the shoulders of Ukrainian soldiers,” Kirby said.
“We need Congress to pass the national security supplemental bill without further delay,” Kirby said.
After weeks of negotiations, the US Senate passed a corresponding bill a few days ago. However Republicans have a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, and lawmakers from the right-wing fringe of the party have been opposing further US aid for Ukraine.
The package includes around US$60 billion in aid for Ukraine, the majority of which is earmarked for military support.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday said the delay in passing new US aid for Ukraine was already hurting Kyiv on the battlefield.
Zelensky on Friday will meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, his office announced.
According to a spokesman for the German government, Zelensky and Scholz will sign a bilateral pact covering “long-term security commitments and support” for Ukraine.
Kyiv has also been pressing Europe to deliver more much-needed artillery shells
Zelensky will meet US Vice-President Kamala Harris at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.
Reuters, Agence France-Presse and dpa
