The situation remains “tense” this Saturday in Avdiivkaa town in eastern Ukraine that for several days has been the target of a major offensive by Russian forceswho are trying again to “surround” it, according to its mayor Vitaly Barabach.
Avdiivka, 13 km north of Donetsk, under Russian control, briefly fell into the hands of pro-Russian separatists armed and backed by Moscow in July 2014, before returning to Ukrainian control. Since then, it has marked the front line in this area and was already being bombed regularly even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The situation there is “very tense; for five days now, the enemy has not stopped attacking or shelling positions around the city,” Barabach told Ukrainian television on Saturday.
The Russians’ goal is to “surround the city,” the official laments, adding that Moscow’s army was “deploying more and more troops” to take down Avdiivka.
Last night was, however, “the first night” in recent days in which “there have been no (Russian) rocket attacks on the city,” which is now largely destroyed, he adds.