Russian forces ‘storming Ukraine's Avdiivka en masse’

AVDIIVKA

Large numbers of Russian forces are pushing to capture the frontline Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, its Ukrainian mayor said yesterday, escalating a months-long effort to capture the industrial hub.

Moscow launched a costly bid in October to seize the town, which has been caught up in fighting since 2014, when it briefly fell to Moscow-backed separatists.

"Unfortunately, the enemy is pressing from all directions. There is not a single part of our city that is more or less calm," mayor Vitaly Barabash told state media.

"They are storming with very large forces," he added.

The capture of Avdiivka would provide a much-needed victory for Russia to bring home, in the run-up to the second anniversary of its fully-fledged invasion of Ukraine and its March presidential election.

Avdiivka is located in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia, along with four other Ukrainian territories that Moscow says it has annexed.

Barabash characterized the fighting as "very hot" and "very difficult."

"The situation in some directions is simply unreal," he said.

Fewer than 950 people remain in the frontline town, of an estimated pre-war population of around 33,000 people, he said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine urged the West on Feb. 7 to speed up and increase deliveries of artillery shells after a new Russian missile attack on Kiev and other regions killed four in the capital and wounded more than 40.

Securing the shells has been a priority for Kiev, which is burning through its reserves as Russia throws more manpower and resources at the frontlines almost two years into its invasion.

"We will respond to every missile, every Shahed [drone]," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address, sending condolences to the families of the victims.

"And our task this year is not only to maximize our air shield and long-range capabilities of Ukraine, but also to inflict maximum systemic losses on Russia," he said, after meeting with EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell.

Ukraine's commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny said Russia used drones, cruise, ballistic and anti-aircraft missiles in the barrage.

He said Russia fired 20 drones and 44 missiles in Feb. 7’s attack, with Ukraine shooting down 15 drones and 29 missiles.

The strike on an 18-story residential building in Kiev's southern Golosiivsky district blew out windows across several floors, and sent dark smoke cascading into the sky from the destroyed facade.

Almost 30,000 people were temporarily left without power in Kiev, the Energy Ministry said.

Officials said that one person was also killed in the southern Mykolaiv region on Feb. 7.

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich said the attack stripped roofs off 20 houses and damaged gas and water pipes in the port city, where one person was killed.