The situation on the ground in the embattled Donetsk town of Avdiivka is "constantly changing," Ukraine has said, as its forces come to the end of what Kyiv described as the toughest month of the 22-month old war against Russia.
"We are constantly maneuvering our units," Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, who commands Ukraine's Tavria group of forces covering Avdiivka, told the BBC in an interview published on Wednesday.
"The situation is constantly changing—both positively and negatively. If it is negative, then we react as much as possible," he said.
Russia launched its offensive around Avdiivka on October 10, triggering thousands of deaths on both sides just ahead of the grueling winter season settling in across Ukraine.
Western analysts were initially optimistic about Avdiivka holding out and Ukrainian defenses remaining unbreached. But almost daily, Moscow has been inching further around the industrial settlement. Russian forces advanced in the past few days, including in eastern Stepove, a village just north of Avdiivka, the U.S. think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), said on Wednesday.
"The enemy has been trying to push through our defense for the third month in a row, sparing no people, weapons, or military equipment," Tarnavskyi added.
Russia wants to "at the very least" capture Avdiivka by the end of the year, Tarnavskyi said. Moscow ultimately hopes to reach the western edges of the contested eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions by 2024, he argued.
Reaching these borders would be a significant propaganda victory for the Kremlin, former Ukrainian army colonel Serhiy Hrabsky told Newsweek on Wednesday.
December has been "the most difficult month" of the war so far, Colonel Oleksandr Shtupun, spokesperson for the Tavria group, said on Thursday. Russian forces are "storming Marinka and Avdiivka all the time," he said, according to comments published by Ukrainian media.
"In terms of the number of attacks, in terms of pressure on our units, the last month of this year is the hardest," he said.
Russia said on Monday that its forces were in full control of Marinka, a town on the frontlines to the southwest of Avdiivka, which Ukraine initially denied. But Kyiv's top soldier, General Valery Zaluzhnyi, said late Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had retreated to the northern flank of the town.
"There is nothing controversial about the fact that Ukrainian soldiers have stepped back to the outskirts of the town of Marinka," Zaluzhnyi told the media.
Marinka is deserted, largely left in ruins after years of clashes between Ukrainian forces pitted against Russian and Moscow-backed forces.
Hrabsky told Newsweek on Wednesday that Marinka is far less of a strategic victory for Russia than Avdiivka, although both towns have weathered nine years on the frontlines.
Capturing Avdiivka would allow Moscow to greatly expand its logistical operations, jeopardize Ukraine's operations against Russian positions in Donetsk City and could pave Russia's path to Kostyantynivka—a "quite important stronghold," Hrabsky added.
Kostyantynivka is on the approach to the industrial zones around Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, still firmly under Ukrainian control.
On Thursday, Ukraine's military said its forces had "repelled" 32 Russian attacks along the frontlines close to Avdiivka in the previous 24 hours. Kyiv also fought off three Russian attacks around Marinka and the village of Novomykhailivka just south of Marinka, the Ukrainian military said in an operational update.
Russia's Defense Ministry said on Thursday that its forces had taken out 115 Ukrainian fighters and three military vehicles in southern Donetsk over the past day, including around Novomykhailivka.
Ukraine's grasp around Novomykhailivka "will significantly deteriorate" now that Russia controls Marinka, Hrabsky said.
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