In October 2023, before the new round of battles in Avadiivka, the formation of a favorable combat posture of the Russian army was mainly achieved by focusing on breakthroughs in three stages and long-term battles throughout them.
Phase I: At the beginning of the war in 2022, the breakthrough of the Don Army on the front north of Avadiivka formed a noticeable salient;
The second stage: the breakthrough of the Don Army on the front south of Avadiivka in the summer of 2022, forming a salient in the south;
The third stage: At the beginning of 2023, the further compression of the Don army on the northern flank squeezed the peripheral positions of the Acheng Ukrainian army, and played the forward position of the subsequent Acheng battle.
The current round of the Russian army's attack on Avadiivka began in mid-October 2023 and has lasted for four months so far.
According to the sustainable attack power of the Don army, it is not enough to support such a long period of offensive operations, and the reasons why the offensive of the Russian Don army is not reduced are as follows:
First: the Russian Aerospace Forces focused on supporting Avadiivka and threw a large amount of aviation ammunition, which was unprecedented after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war;
Second: the central cluster of the Russian army draws troops from the Kremina front, so that the Don army can fight side by side with the regular Russian army;
Third: In the summer of 2023, the Don Army itself has carried out equipment renewal and in-depth training of its soldiers, and its regular combat capability has been greatly enhanced;
Fourth, the Don army has absorbed a part of Wagner's detachments and soldiers, and has been strengthened by a number of volunteers and mobilized troops, which has greatly increased the number of troops that can participate in the battle;
Fifth: Thanks to Russia's military-industrial mobilization, the Don Army and the Russian artillery supported by this line have a huge amount of ammunition, and there is no shortage of ammunition during Wagner's attack on Artemsk.
The effect of the Avadiivka offensive is quite obvious when placed in a long enough combat period, and in general its progress is roughly as follows:
In October 2023, the Russian army occupied the "garbage mountain" on the northern flank and positions along the railway;
In November 2023, the Russian army occupied positions in the industrial zone on the southern flank;
In December 2023, the Russian army consolidated the newly occupied positions on the northern and southern flanks and expanded its control over the border areas;
In January 2024, the Russian army occupied the "Tsar's Hunting Ground" area on the southern flank and broke into the southern city.
The key breakthrough of the Russian army occurred in February.
At the beginning of February, the Russian army on the northern flank moved south from the front-line positions of the "garbage mountain" and suddenly launched an attack on the positions of the Ukrainian army east of the city and north of the Blue Lake.
The Ukrainian army here could not resist and retreated, so that the Russian army occupied a large area north of the Blue Lake on February 5, which gave it a direct attack on the central city.
The so-called Avadiivka is a strip-shaped city with a pre-war population of more than 30,000 people.
The northern part of it is the coking plant area, which is connected to the core urban area in the south through a short, narrow, low residential area in the middle. The southern part of the city is the heart of Avadiivka, and in addition to the high-rise areas on the west side, there are large low-rise residential areas on the east side.
After the Russian army broke through to the north of the Blue Lake, the offensive was extremely fierce, and soon broke into the central city and directly launched street fighting.
As mentioned earlier, there are many former Wagner personnel in the Don army in charge of the front-line assault, and these people have extremely rich experience in street fighting, and the Ukrainian army is difficult to resist, so the central city has been lost one after another.
The central city is related to the integrity of the overall defense line of Avadiivka, the railway line passes through it, and the "Industrial Boulevard" connecting the north and south of the city is the main supply line of the Ukrainian army in the city.
Once the Russian army eats all the central city, Avadiivka is equivalent to being cut off by the waist.
In order to counterattack the Russian army, the headquarters of the Ukrainian army reinforced the notorious 3rd Assault Brigade of the Azov Department, but the effect of the counterattack was almost invisible.
By mid-February, the Russian army had cut off the industrial boulevard.
After February 15, the Russian army in Avadiivka attacked on all fronts and planted flags everywhere.
First: The 1st Motorized Infantry Brigade of the 1st Donetsk Army occupied the positions of the former air defense battalion on the southern flank and a fortress area behind it, leveling the battle line.
Only a few remnants of the 3rd Company of the 110th Mechanized Infantry Brigade were left in the Ukrainian army defending here, and after a few breakthroughs, the rest were corpses lying in pools of blood.
Second: The 114th Motorized Infantry Brigade of the 114th Army of Donetsk planted a flag at the entrance to the city of Avadiivka, and Ukraine**Zelensky once left a classic ** when he inspected Avadiivka, and now the flag of the Russian army has been hung in this section.
At the same time, the Russian army also crossed the industrial road to the west, attacked in the direction of the last field supply line of the Ukrainian army, and occupied a large area of wilderness; The troops attacking to the north attacked the coking plant.
Thirdly, the units fighting in the streets of the central city continued to move south, and after occupying the monuments and other places in the center of the city, they also planted flags to check in.
Fourth: In the east of Avadiivka, the position of the sewage treatment plant near the H20 highway, the Ukrainian army finally found it difficult to hold on and abandoned it, and the Russian army also planted a flag and clocked in after occupying the place.
For a time, the Russian army in the entire Avadiivka was planting flags everywhere, and the Ukrainian army did not make a decent counterattack at any point.
Against this background, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Syrsky, announced on February 17 that he would withdraw his troops from Avadiivka. Although the Ukrainian army has not yet fully withdrawn, the battle of Acheng is obviously decided.