Russia keeps mounting huge pressure on Avdiivka, grey zone has shrunk, but not all is lost – city military administration

Vitalii Barabash, Head of the Avdiivka City Military Administration, has said that Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups had not been able to enter Avdiivka even though they had come very close to it and that Russian occupation forces are relentlessly assaulting the city.

Source: Vitalii Barabash on Ukrainska Pravda Live

Quote: "They’re just mounting assaults on this front. We’re no longer talking about sabotage and reconnaissance groups, we’re talking about full-fledged assault operations […]

From the first days of the full-scale invasion, maybe within the first 2-3 weeks, the first [Russian] sabotage and reconnaissance groups made attempts to enter the city. That’s how it’s been ever since. There have been a lot of attempts over the course of all this time.

They haven’t done any major damage, because they haven’t been able to enter the city, not once. There have been a lot of attempts like that, but they have been neutralised on approach to the city, even when they had come very close. Not a single [Russian] group has been able to enter the city until now."

Details: When asked whether Russian forces have captured the Tsarska Okhota restaurant, Barabash said that it was a hotel and restaurant complex located outside of the city proper and that Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups have entered it but have since been pushed out, with Ukrainian forces controlling the restaurant in the past 2-3 days.

Barabash also said that the operational situation was the most difficult on the Marinka front (in the vicinity of Novomykhailivka), as well as on the Kupiansk and Bakhmut fronts. He added that the situation in Avdiivka was also difficult, but Russian occupation forces have not entered the city.

Quote: "There’s pressure. There are assaults. Yesterday they even deployed heavy equipment to carry out an assault operation on Tsarska Okhota. There’s a huge pressure there. They’ve made some success: the grey zone has shrunk, that's for sure. Certain positions have been lost then regained by our soldiers.

No one is saying that everything’s okay and we got it easy. No, that’s far from reality. But to say that all is lost wouldn’t be true either."

Background: 

• The Institute for the Study of War reported that geolocated footage published on 21 January showed that Russian forces have advanced near the restaurant Tsarska Okhota along Soborna Street (in the south of Avdiivka) and along the strip of trees in the southwest of Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast.
• On 22 January, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that Russian forces were exerting pressure along the entire contact line, with the majority of attacks repelled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the Avdiivka front.
• A week earlier, UK Defence Intelligence said that Russia has achieved minimal territorial gains in Avdiivka at significant cost, both in material and human terms.

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