The conflict between Moscow and Kiev has entered its third year with Russian troops reporting new gains against Ukrainian forces.
Last Friday, the country’s Defense Ministry announced the full liberation of Lastochkino, Severnoye and Petrovskoye, small villages located to the west and northwest of the town of Avdeevka. The northern suburb of Donetsk, liberated mid-February, had been a major stronghold for the Ukrainian forces and a key staging area for indiscriminate missile and artillery attacks on the Russian city.
The past week was marked by continuing active hostilities at multiple locations along the front line, with the most intense combat happening to the west and northwest of Donetsk. Ukrainian forces lost nearly 7,300 soldiers as well as assorted military hardware during the period, according to Russian Defense Ministry estimates.
Kiev’s forces were observed deploying their long-held reserves to the battlefield, namely the scarce US-supplied M1 Abrams tanks, while Moscow has apparently ramped up long-range strikes against Ukrainian rear military targets, such as stockpiles of ammunition and temporary assembly points.
Russia’s westward push in Donbass continues
Over the past week, the most active combat continued to the northwest of Donetsk. While the Ukrainian military has claimed that after the fall of Avdeevka, it had pulled back to a new “stable defensive line” between the villages of Orlovka, Tonenkoye and Berdychi. Multiple Western media reports suggested Kiev had actually failed to create such a line, with only “basic trenches” hastily dug in the area.
According to Russian media reports, Orlovka and Tonenkoye have already fallen under partial control of the country’s troops, with only Berdychi remaining in the hands of Kiev’s forces. The Ukrainian military has been actively pouring reserves into the area, with the Russian Defense Minstry reporting multiple counterattacks repelled there daily.
Ukrainian Abrams tanks getting destroyed
More Ukrainian M1 Abrams tanks were destroyed in the vicinity of the village of Berdychi over the past week, one of them knocked out by Russian infantry while another ended up disabled in a duel against a T-72B3 main battle tank. The total tally of destroyed US-supplied armor, confirmed by the Russian Defense Ministry and corroborated by footage circulating online, now stands at three tanks.
Two more M1 Abrams tanks were reportedly damaged in combat, with two Abrams-based engineering machines, M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicles also destroyed by Russian troops.
The US-made vehicles made their long-anticipated first appearance on the frontline in late February amid the Ukrainian effort to stop advancing Russian troops after the fall of Avdeevka. A batch of 31 M1 Abrams tanks was pledged to Kiev by Washington early last year, ahead of the ultimately disastrous Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The delivery was made in full only by mid-October, when the botched push had already been largely exhausted, the tanks starring in Ukrainian propaganda videos rather than taking part in actual combat.
High-quality HIMARS kill video
The week has been also marked by the emergence of footage showing a Russian strike on a HIMARS multiple rocket launcher. Although Moscow has previously claimed its forces have destroyed the US-supplied systems, the new kill has been corroborated for the first time by a high-quality drone video.
The launcher was reportedly hit near the Ukrainian-controlled Donbass town of Dobropolye, located more than 40 kilometers from the front line. The system sustained a hit by an unknown projectile, which ignited its ammo rack, triggering an uncontrolled launch of missiles and their detonation.
While the country’s military did not elaborate, the HIMARS was likely hit by a guided missile launched by its Russian counterpart, the Tornado-S system. The multiple rocket launcher, introduced in the mid-2010s, is capable of firing its 300mm missiles at a range of at least 70 kilometers.
‘Close call’ for Zelensky
On Wednesday, the Russian military conducted a high-precision missile strike on a port facility in the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odessa, targeting a hangar said to be housing sea drones. The drones have been repeatedly used by Kiev to attack Russian navy ships, as well as the Crimean Bridge.
The strike occurred while the Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky was in the city, hosting a Greek delegation led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The sea-drones hangar was in a direct view of the delegation, prompting media speculation that the presidential convoy was the true target of the strike. The suggestion, however, has been refuted by Moscow.
The strike on the hangar came shortly after a reported attack on the Russian naval patrol ship Sergey Kotov, said to have been targeted by multiple sea drones near the Kerch Strait. While Ukrainian military intelligence claimed the vessel sank during the attack, the Russian side remained silent on the matter, while footage circulating online suggested the ship suffered at least one hit.