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The Ukrainian army is under heavy pressure west of Avdiivka. An important town falls to the Russians. And Vladimir Putin's troops are advancing.
Avdiivka – The bad news for Ukraine continues in its fight against the invasion by Russia. Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin once described Kiev as “the mother of all Russian cities.”
Second line of defense in the Ukraine war: Vladimir Putin's Russian army advances in Donbass
And the Russian ruler leaves no doubt that he still wants to conquer the Ukrainian capital while sending thousands of his compatriots to their deaths between Kharkiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia in the Ukraine war. On March 19, his invasion army made the next sensitive advance on the current front line in Donbass west of Avdiivka.
Specifically: According to the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, Russian troops captured the small town of Orlivka. Explosive: The settlement is located exactly on the second Ukrainian defense line between Berdychi and Tonenke, which the Ukrainians moved into after the withdrawal from Avdiivka in mid-February. Will the Russians now make a breakthrough in eastern Ukraine?
Ukraine front in Donbass: criticism of the military leadership and Volodymyr Zelensky
Maps from Ukrainian military observers confirmed the front shift, reported German Press Agency (dpa) on Tuesday. Worrying: Already after the fall of Avdiivka there were reports of serious failures on this section of the front, while the new Ukrainian commander-in-chief Olexander Syrskyj is already under heavy pressure (and sometimes criticized).
Strong criticism recently came from Yuri Butusov from the Ukrainian Information Service in a detailed analysis of the Avdiivka case Censor.net. The analyst firmly rebuked the military leadership and President Volodymyr Zelensky. Loud Süddeutscher Zeitung (SZ) Butusov had previously reported from Avdiivka for months and had the best contacts with officers and soldiers on site, insofar as they remained alive during the fierce fighting.
Russia is making progress in the East: Failures of the Ukraine Army?
Butusov named an almost devastating omission that Western military observers have also included in their analyzes in recent days. The Ukrainian army has apparently failed to build a second line of fortifications made up of trenches, bunkers and shelters in recent years and months. Therefore, the Ukrainian soldiers who had to flee Avdiivka could not retreat to such defenses.
Butusov complained loudly that the military administration and responsible construction units had remained inactive SZ. This has to do with the fact that the engineer units of the Ukrainian army are undersupplied, he explained: “Most defensive positions are dug out of the ground by soldiers with a spade.” Meanwhile, the Russians had dug fortified trenches east of Avdiivka with heavy equipment.
At war with Russia: military historian warns of collapse of Ukraine
The alarm signals are vehement in the current situation – and not just here. “Ukraine is certainly under massive pressure now. And it is no longer ruled out by people who really have insight that Ukraine can collapse too,” explained military historian Prof. Sönke Neitzel to ZDF’s “heute journal” in the March 19 edition. For example, the Ukrainian armed forces are also losing more and more Western tanks such as the Leopard 2.
In the Donbass, Ukraine will ultimately have to give up town after town west of Avdiivka. After Lastochkyne, now also Orlivka, while the Ukraine Contact Group of NATO supporting states met in Ramstein, Germany on the same day. One result: Germany will immediately deliver 10,000 additional 155 mm artillery shells from Bundeswehr stocks. However, the Ukrainian army usually uses this amount in three to four days. (pm)
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