The Ukrainian military reported little change on the front lines, but heavy fire from Russian forces on various parts of the front line in the Donetsk region.
The General Staff said that more than 45 enemy attacks were repelled over the past day, with emphasis on Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Mariinka.
It said there had been 17 airstrikes and more than 20 strikes by multiple rocket launch systems.
“In the direction of Bakhmut, the enemy is trying to take full control of the city of Bakhmut and continues to storm it,” the General Staff said.
To the west of the city, the Ukrainian defense forces repelled around twenty enemy attacks, according to the General Staff.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said on Telegram that in Bakhmut he met “soldiers and commanders who destroyed the myth of the invincibility of Wagner fighters and Russian paratroopers.”
Syrskyi raised the possibility of a future counter-offensive, saying that “the forward movement of our entire army depends on what each soldier is doing at the moment in his section of the front.”
Some of the heaviest fighting is taking place northwest and west of the city of Donetsk – as the Russians continue their months-long effort to dislodge Ukrainian defenses at Avdiivka and Mariinka. The general staff indicated that around twenty assaults had been repelled.
“There are also some operational successes of our military in the Donetsk region. Our military has taken certain positions. They have adopted a more strategic and favorable position,” said Oleksii Dmytrashkivskyi, spokesperson for the army in this area.
He also pointed out that Russian special forces had been deployed to the region.
“The enemy is trying to attack our positions between Avdiivka and Marinka. These attempts do not stop. It should be noted that the enemy suffered quite significant losses,” Dmytrashkivskyi said.
He also said that the Russians “do not have the same amount of equipment and, as they themselves say, they are on a ‘diet’ of ammunition for assaults.”
A video posted on social media shows the two sides engaged in heavy fire in the Avdiivka region, which the Russians have surrounded on three sides.
Denis Pushilin, the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said Russian forces were still advancing in the direction of Avdiivka.
“It is still premature to talk about encirclement, but the situation is being created, if not critical, at least extremely difficult for the enemy… Having cleared Kamianka, our units advance further. There are difficulties both with the terrain, which also need to be overcome, and there are also similarities with weather conditions. But these difficulties are mutual – both for the enemy and for us,” Pushilin said.
