Ukrainian soldiers walk through the rubble of destruction on December 7, 2023 in Avdiivka, Ukraine. Getty Photos
Spokesperson for Ukraine’s Tavriisk forces group, Colonel Oleksandr Shtupun, said Moscow’s forces have lost about 25,000 soldiers fighting in the Donetsk region over the past two months and 80% of these losses occurred around Avdiivka .
Clashes are increasing in the Donetsk region as Russia fights for control of Avdiivka. Since October 10, Russia has sent thousands of soldiers, tanks and armored vehicles into the area considered the gateway to Donetsk city.
Moscow and Kiev are both said to have suffered heavy losses in troops and equipment in battles in the region.
On Thursday, a retired American volunteer and US Marine who fought in the war in Ukraine said rescue teams in the area said “this is the biggest loss they have seen in Russia”. suffered on the entire battlefield throughout the entire war”.
Newsweek has not been able to independently verify these claims and has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense via email for comment.
“If we count from October 10, when the enemy was more active, in some places they advanced 1.5km to 2km,” Mr. Shtupun said on national television.
“But it cost them dearly. In a little over two months, the enemy lost almost 25,000 people, through killed and wounded, about 200 tanks and more than 400 armored vehicles in the group’s area of responsibility Tavria (Tavriisk) is in Donetsk province,” Mr. Shtupun added.
Mr. Shtupun also said that the Russian army often forms new companies from degraded units that have suffered great losses to conduct attacks near Avdiivka. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US think tank, said a number of well-trained and well-equipped units continued to fight in the region.
Russian forces are believed to have advanced near Avdiivka, but no changes have been confirmed on the front lines in the area, the institute said.
ISW said that although a Russian military blogger has claimed that Russian forces have made small advances southwest of Avdiivka near Pervomaiske, they have yet to see any visual evidence to support the claim. This dad.
“Russian and Ukrainian sources said Russian forces struck northwest, west and southwest of Avdiivka as well as near the Avdiivka industrial park and coke plant,” ISW wrote but also said that, According to a Russian source, Ukrainian forces are also counterattacking around Avdiivka.