Frozen front in Donbass: Russians and Ukrainians fight fiercely

The frozen front in the Donbass
Russians and Ukrainians fight fiercely

11/18/2022 1:36 PM

Since the rapid advance of September, the Ukrainians have advanced little to the east. Russian armed forces make only minor gains in territory. The trend of the front is mostly the same. Warring parties now rely primarily on artillery systems and tanks.

In the Donbass coal and steel region in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian troops are fighting fiercely, and the front line has not changed this time. The Ukrainian General Staff reported artillery and tank shelling of the villages of Vodiane, Krasnorivka and Marinka near the city of Avdiivka. The Kiev information has not been independently verified, but in this case it is consistent with the reports of Russian military bloggers.

Ukrainian-controlled Avdiivka is a few kilometers north of Donetsk. The situation in Ukraine is well-developed as a front line between Ukrainian forces and Moscow-controlled separatists has been playing out there since 2014.

In the nearly nine months since the Russian invasion on February 24, Russian forces have made little ground gain. According to Russian data, the village of Opytne was captured last. The US Institute for War Studies (ISW) estimates that the withdrawal from the Kherson region has resulted in Russia moving troops to this sector of the front.

Another focus of fighting is the area around the city of Pakmut, according to the situation report of the Ukrainian General Staff. There, Ukrainian positions were fired upon by tanks, mortars, pipe and rocket artillery. Here too, the trend of the pioneer has remained practically unchanged for several months.

Heavy artillery fire also took place on the Kubiansk front. This important railway junction in the Kharkiv region was recaptured by the Ukrainian army in a rapid advance in September. Since then, however, the Ukrainians have made little progress eastward. According to local officials, Russian troops opened fire on a village in the Zaporizhia region at night with S-300 system missiles that were actually designed for anti-aircraft defense. A building collapsed but no one was injured.