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New York Times: Russia's advance has slowed since the capture of Avdiivka
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[LB] Ukraine has deployed significant forces to defend the area, while Russian forces are now attacking across open fields with little cover.

by Sergey Albul

The fighting appears to have returned to the inconclusive battles without significant advances that characterized much of the fighting on the front lines of the past year, The New York Times reported.
Does the NYT know for sure, or are their prize-winning fabulists making stuff up again?
"The capture of Avdiivka did not lead to the collapse of Ukrainian defense lines, the possibility for the Russians to get into open territory or even to make serious gains," said Thibaut Fouillet, deputy director of the US Institute for Strategic and Defense Studies, part of the French research center.

He added that there is no decisive action or breakthrough on the battlefield.

This is in contrast to the situation that arose after the capture of Avdiivka by the Russians in mid-February. While Ukrainian forces were retreating, Russia was advancing rapidly, partly due to the lack of strong Ukrainian defensive positions. Russian troops captured three settlements and took control of nine square miles (almost 15 sq km) of land, according to open maps of the battlefield.

But in the past 10 days, Moscow has seized just over a square mile of land (about 1.6 sq km), according to open maps. Its fighters were mired in battles in and around the villages of Berdychi, Orlivka and Tonenke.

Russian forces "appear to be trying to advance using small assault groups of infantry, but they are being destroyed in relatively open terrain west of Avdiivka," said Pasi Paroinen, an analyst at the Black Bird Group, a Finnish open-source community that evaluates satellite imagery and social media content from the battlefield.

Ukraine appears to have currently deployed some of its best troops and weapons to fight in the area west of Avdiivka.

Military experts say the continued defense in the area is likely intended to give Ukrainian units time to prepare and strengthen new defensive lines further west.

Russia's storming of Avdiyivka caused great human and material losses for its troops. British military intelligence said that the average daily number of Russian soldiers killed and wounded in February, when Moscow directed a large number of forces to fight for Avdiivka, reached 983 people, which is "the highest figure since the beginning of the war."


Posted by: badanov 2024-03-10
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=693436