Avdivka becomes a symbol of war. Russia is advancing with all its might. Ukraine is adamantly against it. Now the new tanks are rolling.
Avdivka – Carlo Masala is wrong in his assumption. for now. Hamburg uses the political scientist Avtivka as an example Hamburger Abendblatt Explains that Ukraine was determined to let Putin's troops bleed to death. As he puts it, he expects a “tactical withdrawal” of Ukrainian defenders from the territory almost every hour. Masala had said some time ago. But there the fighting continues; The Russians are also fighting relentlessly for the city, with little emphasis on the consequences of the war in Ukraine — a symbol of mutual conflict between Vladimir Putin and the free world.
Newsweek Now reports that the Russians are apparently taking another breather to push the defenders out of the city — and finally: the Russian armed forces are “increasingly adding tank groups to attack infantry groups,” Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnovsky recently said. Head of the Ukrainian Davria faction that owns Avtivka. In mid-October, Russia launched its offensive around Avdiivka, claiming thousands of lives on both sides, before a harsh winter gripped Ukraine. Over the months, Moscow has made slow but steady progress in the area of industrial settlements there.
Contested Avtivka: Russian troops enter a field of ruins
Newsweek Local journalist Yuri Butussov quotes that the Russians are only one kilometer from the outskirts of the city. Putsov reports on him telegram— Canal from the ruined city. The visitors initially gave Ukraine good chances in defence, but confidence is waning fast.
The Russians' original tactic appears to have been to surprise their defenders with self-dug tunnels, cellars and sewers — an approach from late last year, 110th Separate Mechanized Brigade spokesman Anton Kotsukon told Ukrainian News. The Union Agency reported: “They are digging mines close to our positions, firstly for the purpose of camouflage, and secondly, to appear unexpectedly somewhere near our positions.” Now Russia wants to use massive vehicles to force a decision; Obviously by hook or bend. Time is of the essence – Russian troops have been encircling the city for nearly five months.
Path to Avdivka: Paved by Wrecks and Fallen Soldiers
By driving these wedges into Ukrainian-controlled areas, the Russians appear to be trying to create small pockets, small enclaves, within the contested Avtivka region. In order to avoid encirclement, Ukrainian troops had to gradually withdraw from several positions and straighten their lines, mostly in the southern part of the ruined city – this analysis ZDF Current situation. Taking Avdiivka would allow Moscow to significantly expand its logistical operations and control Ukraine's movement against Russian positions in the regional capital, Donetsk. That, in turn, would pave the way for Russia's Kostiantynivka — a “pretty important fortress,” Ukraine's former colonel told Serhii Harapsky. Newsweek.
Vehicle losses characterized Russian offensive efforts around Avdiivka from the start. Based on comparisons of satellite images by data analysts Predictive Intelligence Between the start of the attack on the city on October 10 and the end of the year, Moscow lost more than 211 vehicles around Avdiivka alone. The British estimate is even more detailed: the British Ministry of Defense estimates that Russia lost around 200 armored vehicles in the first three weeks of the Avdiivka offensive alone.
Russia's game with history: Avdiivka could become the second Grozny
“Fighting in structured terrain is one of the most stressful and challenging tasks for soldiers and especially their superiors,” said former Bundeswehr Major General Walter Spindler. Stuttgart News. Defenders would have the enormous advantage of knowing their city intimately, preparing it for defense, and tailoring their plans to local conditions. In response, attackers can only use tanks and vehicles to a limited and ineffective extent. In Western military tactical terms, a superiority of 7:1 is required, even 9:1 in Russian terms, to successfully capture a city, he explains. Therefore, the former infantry officer considers the use of tanks to be a tactical variation born of necessity – in his opinion, tanks are of no real help to infantrymen in urban warfare.
In any case, the infantrymen must first protect the tanks from enemy fire. Spindler: “Tank crews can observe the battlefield from the tank only through brick-sized armored mirrors called angle mirrors. It greatly restricts your vision. Additionally, tanks and armored personnel carriers could only fire short ranges of about 150 meters instead of the actual 3,500 to 4,500 meters. Vehicles are vulnerable to attacks such as rocket-propelled grenades or Molotov cocktails sent to Ukraine from Western countries. – Danger lurks around every corner.
Molotov cocktail – the oldest grenade
The Molotov cocktail takes its name from Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov; He was an influential Soviet politician between the 1920s and 1950s – for example Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.
On November 30, 1930, three months after the German invasion of Poland, the “Winter War” began: Soviet soldiers crossed the Finnish border in Karelia, and Red Army planes dropped cluster bombs on Helsinki and other cities. But Molotov tried to cover up the attack. In a radio address, Soviet bombers said they were dropping food to starving people. Finns treated cluster bombs with black humor and called them “Molotov bread baskets”.
Since the mid-1930s, soldiers have used bottles containing massive amounts of flammable liquids in battles. Infantrymen fought on three continents with new old weapons: the Chinese near Shanghai against the Japanese, the Abyssinians in Ethiopia against the Italian invaders, and the fascists under General Franco in Spain against the Republicans. Tanks always have weak points: flammable liquid can enter through sight slits in driver's cabins and ventilation slots in engines. Especially when tanks drive slowly, they are easy targets for incendiary devices.
The Finnish army was hopelessly inferior to Russia's and relied heavily on incendiary bottles to defend itself against tanks. There was a joke among the soldiers that bread baskets of Moloto had to be served with the right drink. That's how the Molotov cocktails got their name: Molotov cocktails.
They are: Spiegel
Vladimir Putin's army fell into disaster with its tanks in a city several years ago. One of the last battles fought by tanks in a city ended in disaster, says East European researcher James Hughes. Center for East European and International Studies writes: “In December 1994, a long column of Russian tanks entered the Chechen capital of Grozny to quell a nationalist-separatist uprising. Russia assumed that the rebels would surrender only if they showed military force.
However, within a few hours the column was completely destroyed by the Chechen militia. Russia lost about 200 armored vehicles, and about 1,000 Russian soldiers were killed or captured.” The tank belongs on the battlefield. The cities are foreign to him. “The current situation in Avdiivka is for its troops to absorb and transmit lessons learned from previous failed offensive attempts in Ukraine to other troop groups across the region. It is a microcosm of the overall failure of the Russian civil service. Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Avdivka's success: a manpower-intensive campaign
Essentially, the battle for Avdiivka demanded a tactical performance from the military leadership, something the Russians consistently failed to deliver. Infantry is more important to winning local and urban warfare than the effectiveness of tanks and artillery, said Lt. Col. Andre Knappe, battalion commander of the German Air Force's material security brigade. In addition, intelligence is very important – for example through drones. In principle, the attacking side always pursues the advantage of the defenders. The number of attacking personnel or objects increases the number of victims, but does not lead to immediate gains.
Knappe said it was an “almost impossible task” to take on a large, densely built city. At the beginning of the war, the Russian armed forces had already tried to force Kiev under their thumb – but in the end they failed. Their attack on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital has already stopped. Bringing such chaotic territory under one's own control is always a monumental task — no matter how different the cities, says Lt. Col. “They need a lot of staff to do that.”
Thus, even if the Russians eventually succeeded in encircling Avtivka, it would be the result of a slow, creeping advance rather than a devastating advance like a blitzkrieg, giving the remaining defenders enough time to retreat and thus avoid encirclement. And every time the enemy delays, the defenders get the upper hand. Dmytro Lasutkin, a spokesman for the 47th Ukrainian Brigade, which is fighting around Avdiivka, said in December. Newsweek Declares: “It's worth defending the city until we wear out the Russians.”
Russian offensive attempts demonstrate that Ukrainians continue to stubbornly resist. The war will continue to rage.
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