Local military officials in eastern Ukraine say Russian forces have expanded their avenues of attack against the Donetsk region town of Avdiyivka in an effort to surround and capture it “at any cost.”
Ukrainian forces have been engaged in heavy fighting for weeks as they try to stave off Russian advances on the industrial hub, and are now facing assaults from two new directions, according to Vitaliy Barabash, the head of Avdiyivka’s military administration.
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“The current third wave of enemy assaults differs from the previous two in that they have conditionally opened two new directions,” Barabash told Ukrainian state media on December 4. “The launching of new directions proves that the enemy has been given a command to capture the city at any cost.”
Ukrainian commanders have said that Russian forces have suffered heavy losses during the assault on the frontline town, while British intelligence has said that the fight for Avdiyivka has led to the highest casualty rates among Russian troops since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Barabash said some 1,300 civilians remained in Avdiyivka, which once had a population of about 30,000.
The comments came as Ukraine touted multiple battleground victories, but also received troubling news about possible issues regarding future financial and military support from its Western allies.
In the United States, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden sent a letter to Congress urging lawmakers to approve tens of billions of promised economic assistance to Kyiv to support Ukraine’s war effort.
Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young warned in the letter that without action the United States will…
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