Germany’s Bild published an article about the apparent collapse of Russia’s plans to seize Avdiivka and Kupiansk in Ukraine. The capture of these settlements was intended to create a springboard for a further offensive deeper into the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions.
Preparations for taking Avdiivka began in the spring of 2023 – the relevant data was published in the Telegram channels of Russian military officers. On October 10, 2023, the Russian armed forces launched large-scale assaults on the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Avdiivka, preceded by a 6-hour artillery barrage. The Ukrainian forces withstood a massive blow and depleted Russia’s military reserves allocated for the capture of the town in the first days of the fighting so Russian commanders were forced to pull reinforcements from other sectors of the frontline.
In total, over the three months of continuous assault efforts toward Avdiivka, the Russian army lost thousands of military personnel and at least 400 armored fighting vehicles. The Ukrainian Armed Forces set up a solid defense network, which involved minefields, FPV drone strikes, a combination of massive artillery strikes, coupled with heavy support from tanks, MLR systems, and infantry fighting vehicles, which inflicted catastrophic losses on the Russian army. In certain sectors of the front, the Russians saw their assault units losing 100% of their manpower and military equipment. Avdiivka has become a symbol of the collapse of the Russian army: despite a huge forcmilitary potential deployed in the area, the Russians today are as far from capturing the city as they were three months ago – only carrying out sporadic attacks. Local fighting has also been taking place near Kupiansk as the Ukrainian Armed Forces hampered a Russian attempt at a winter offensive.
But Russia is not going to stop and is now accumulating resources for another assault on these settlements. In this regard, the timely delivery of Western weapons, which were a key factor in thwarting the Russian offensive, is critical. Russia is bets on quantity rather than quality, throwing into a war grinder a massive number of infantrymen, while remaining ineffective without armored and artillery cover. Ukraine’s battlefield performance proved that the effective destruction of Russian military hardware reduces the pace of Russian offensive efforts and is able to ultimately stop them. Consequently, high-tech weaponry in the hands of the Ukrainian Armed Forces remain an effective tool for disrupting Putin’s plans to pursue territorial expansion.