Russian troops slowed down their advance after capturing Avdiivka - ISW
The Russians have significantly reduced the pace of their offensive operations in the Avdiivka area (photo: Getty Images)
The pace of Russian offensive operations near Avdiivka has sharply slowed down after the capture of the city. The aggressor's forces will either have to take an operational pause or redeploy reinforcements to this area from other parts of the front, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The department refers to a statement by Dmytro Lykhoviy, a spokesman for the Tavria group of troops, who noted that the number of Russian shellings in the Avdiivka direction has significantly decreased over the past day. The Russian shelling and the activity of aviation in this area have also significantly decreased. Currently, Russian forces are regrouping and clearing the city.
Ukrainian forces have moved to a new defensive line, which the Armed Forces prepared in advance and fortified on several levels.
The report states that Russian forces will likely have to take an operational pause before resuming significant offensive operations in the Avdiivka direction or will have to redeploy additional reinforcements from other parts of the front to prevent a climax of actions near the city.
"Russian forces have reserves available for such reinforcement in other sectors, but ISW has observed no indication that the Russian command is moving those reserves toward Avdiivka at this time," the report says.
Lykhoviy and the spokesman for the Ukrainian Ground Forces, Ilya Yevlash, on the contrary, stated that the Russian command would likely soon transfer the forces concentrated around Avdiivka to other, unspecified sections of the front line.
Yevlash stated that it would likely take Russian forces at least a week to redeploy units from Avdiivka into battle in unspecified areas of the front.
"ISW has not yet observed any indications of how Russian forces will choose to allocate their manpower currently deployed to the Avdiivka area," the report said.
Capture of Avdiivka by the Russians
On the night of February 17, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, announced the decision to withdraw Ukrainian troops from Avdiivka, which was under threat of being surrounded by the enemy. The reason was the storming actions of significantly superior forces of the enemy in the dense urban area with active air support.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, the Defense Forces will be able to create new defensive lines near Avdiivka and stop the enemy's further advance.
On February 18, Russian forces attempted to storm the village of Lastochkyne to the west of Avdiivka, but the Defense Forces repelled 14 enemy attacks.
Military expert Oleksiy Hetman believes that the collapse of the Avdiivka front is unlikely. Instead, the Deep State map indicates some success for the enemy towards Lastochkyne to the west of Avdiivka.
For more details on this, possible threats, and whether the Defense Forces will be able to withstand the enemy's pressure, read the article by RBC-Ukraine.
