Putin scales back attack on Ukraine’s strategic Avdiivka town after heavy Russian losses

Vladimir Putin has scaled back his assault on Avdiivka, said Kyiv’s military officials who also warned that the attacks have not fully stopped yet.

Mr Putin is pouring in fewer troops and equipment in an attempt to seize the battered but strategic Ukrainian stronghold in the Donetsk oblast that has largely been occupied by Russia.

“Russian occupying forces have reduced the number of ground and air attacks, though they still violate the rules of war by shooting at medical teams and evacuation vehicles,” said Ukrainian military spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun.

Avdiivka, that has a vast coking plant, has seen fierce fighting and is now down to just 1,500 residents compared to its pre-war population of about 32,000.

“The invaders are not abandoning their plans to surround Avdiivka. Eight attacks were repelled today,” the spokesperson said.

Russia is likely planning its third wave of attacks in a similar bid it made for Bakhmut last year.

Ukrainian forces are continuing to hold their positions, said Vitaliy Barabash, the head of Avdiivka’s military administration.

“The enemy continues to press on our boys. The main focus for them is drones. And drones again,” he said.

The long-contested town of Maryinka nearby has also started seeing a surge in the number of Russian attacks.

Russia has not detailed its military operations and objectives for Avdiivka in daily updates, but in the latest development, it said its troops were attacking villages south of Avdiivka.

Mr Putin’s troops have continued to fight and occupy Ukraine’s eastern regions in a slow advance and at the cost of thousands of its troops ever since the launch of the full-scale invasion last year.

In the southern theatre of war, Russian forces struck port infrastructure in the Black Sea city of Odesa with missiles, regional officials said on Monday.

Russia’s ministry of defence said marines were “stopping all attempts by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to carry out amphibious landings on the Dnipro islands and the left (eastern) bank of the Dnipro river” in the Kherson region.

Despite the rain and snowy weather conditions, experts monitoring the war said troops on both sides continue to carry out their military operations in eastern and southern Ukraine.