As the war in Ukraine will soon enter its third year, Sasha Vakulina takes stock of the situation on the ground, particularly in Avdiivka where the fighting is raging.
The Ukrainian president’s major military reshuffle is a “normal change for a state engaged in a protracted war” says the NGO Institute for the Study of War in its assessment, as Russian forces recently advanced near Avdiivka amid continued positional fighting in this area of the front line.
Geotagged images released on February 7 indicate that Russian forces advanced slightly in eastern Stepove, northwest of Avdiivka, but probably not over the past day.
Russian military bloggers have also claimed advances into northern Avdiivka as far as Chystyakova Street and the capture of a nearby section of the railway, although the ISW has not observed visual evidence of these claims . The distance here is approximately 5 km.
And here, in the middle, is Hrushevskoho Street, the alleged main land communication line of Ukrainian forces, which Russian forces are trying to cut.