The eastern Ukrainian city came under the control of the Russians on Saturday, who are trying to continue their offensive towards the West.
After four months of extremely intense fighting, the Russian defense minister announced the capture of the town of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, while the new head of the Ukrainian army confirmed the withdrawal of his troops.
The Ukrainians were no longer able to face the repeated attacks from the men of Moscow. A dozen officers told AP that the lack of weapons and ammunition partly explained the situation: “We have nothing to fight with, we have nothing to cover our front lines“said the commander of a howitzer unit. To repel a Russian attack, 100 to 120 shells per unit per day were required. Today they only have a tenth“.
Ukrainian soldiers positioned in Avdiivka also declared that before the fall of the city, Russia had changed tactics to take advantage of the ammunition shortage. Instead of sending columns of armed vehicles, Moscow’s forces launched waves of small infantry groups to engage Ukrainian forces in close combat. This means that the Ukrainian forces had to expel “five times” more ammo to keep them at bay.
Japan thinks about the reconstruction of Ukraine
Tokyo is organizing a conference this Monday with representatives of the Ukrainian and Japanese governments and business communities.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmyhal called on the archipelago and its companies to invest in his country once the war is over. He emphasized the importance of Japanese aid to Ukrainewhich according to him achieved “more than ten billion dollars“.
But on the ground, where many residents must survive under the threat of air attacks, these concerns seem far away. According to the Ukrainian military, four drones were destroyed last night over the Kharkiv region.