Ukrainian officials on Saturday reported intense combat as Russian forces relentlessly assaulted the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka for a fifth consecutive day.
Avdiivka leader Vitalii Barabash reported that Moscow was deploying additional forces to encircle the strategically important city in the eastern Donetsk Oblast, situated just north of the Russian-held regional capital, also called Donetsk.
“The enemy has not stopped either assaulting or shelling positions” around Avdiivka, Barabash said on Ukrainian television.
About 1,600 civilians remain within the city, a stark contrast to its prewar population of about 31,000.
Barabash’s comments came after Russian ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia told a UN Security Council meeting on Friday that the intensified attacks in the east amounted to a new stage in Moscow’s campaign in Ukraine.
“Russian troops have, for several days now, switched over to active combat action practically throughout the entire front line... The so-called Ukrainian counteroffensive can therefore be considered finished,” he said.
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier this week that Ukrainian forces were keeping Russian troops at bay and “holding our ground.”
Donetsk Oblast Acting Governor Ihor Moroz on Saturday said that 22 civilians were wounded in Russian shelling in the region over the past 24 hours.
Further north, fighting along the northern stretch of Ukraine’s eastern front has “significantly worsened” in recent days, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, wrote on Facebook.
Syrskyi, who visited troops in the area, said that Russian forces had regrouped following losses and were mounting attacks around the village of Makiivka and pushing toward the city of Kupiansk, with the goal of encircling Kupiansk and reaching the Oskil River.
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