As of: February 15, 2024, 7:17 p.m
By: Christoph Gschoßmann
Comments
Press
Split
Russia is moving closer to conquering Avdiivka.
But even if this were to succeed, Moscow's victory there would be extremely costly.
Avdiivka - It is no secret that Russia's armed forces are cutting their teeth on Avdiivka.
But the extent of Vladimir Putin's army's real losses there is now becoming more and more apparent.
Russia will probably take the city, but it could be a Pyrrhic victory.
According to a report in Forbes
magazine,
the Kremlin has lost ten percent of the tanks it sent to Ukraine.
Russia has been trying to take the city northwest of Russian-occupied Donetsk in eastern Ukraine for four months now.
The Ukrainian supply lines are threatened by Russian infantry.
The Ukrainian troops are threatened with encirclement.
Recently, Kiev also sent elite troops to the small town.
The strategic value of the place is enormous, especially since it is only not far from Donetsk.
Russia loses 214 tanks in Avdiivka
Both sides are fighting doggedly for Avdiivka - but many Russian tanks have not survived the ongoing assaults.
According to the report, it's pretty much an entire mechanized division.
As painful as the impending loss of the city is for Kiev, it is also hitting Moscow hard.
An analyst calculated that Moscow has lost 214 tanks in the 2nd and 41st combined arms armies since the start of the attack, according to the report.
These included T-72, T-80 and T-90.
In contrast, Ukrainian tank losses are only 18 machines.
According to calculations, more than ten percent of all Russian tanks were destroyed in the battle for Avdiivka.
During the course of the war there had already been reports of losses of 400 Russian tanks in another city.
Situation for Ukraine is becoming more difficult: Russia is advancing further in Avdiivka
According to the Ukrainian military leadership, the situation at the front is difficult.
A total of 87 Russian storm attempts were repelled during the day, the General Staff in Kiev announced in its situation report on Saturday evening (February 10, 2024).
There is particularly heavy fighting on two sections of the front near the large city of Donetsk, which has been controlled by Russian forces since 2014.
It was said that Russian troops launched a good two-thirds of their attacks there during the day.
Once again Avdiivka was under fire.
According to Ukrainian information, Russian troops launched 32 attacks around the city.
According to the situation report, 22 attacks were repelled north of the city and ten more in the south.
The US Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported further successes achieved by Russian troops around the city last weekend.
Video footage shows the rapid advance of Kremlin troops both in the southern part of the city and in the northern regions still held by Ukraine.
The Ukrainians are not fighting the attacking Russians with tanks, but with mines, artillery, drones, rockets and rifle fire from entrenched positions.
(cgsc with material from dpa)