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The Kremlin’s goal remained unchanged — to bring Ukraine to its knees. And in order to realize this goal, the enemy must first take some small Ukrainian town, and he set himself the task of taking Avdiivka. Ivan Varchenko, an expert on national security, said this today, December 17, on the air of the FREEDOM TV channel.
He recalled that the battles for Avdiivka were also fought in 2014, but the main attacks began in October 2023.
“Avdiyivka was the target of Russian propaganda, which wanted to make it something like Stalingrad. Having lost more than 10,000-15,000 dead soldiers, Russia did not achieve this goal. For the entire year 2023, the Russian army, invincible and legendary, as they like to say about themselves, could not boast of any more or less notable victory after Bakhmut. Of course, it is difficult to brag about several dozen landings that the Russians took and gave with varying success throughout 2023,” Varchenko said.
The expert drew attention to the fact that Avdiyivka continues to remain under the control of Ukraine.
“Yes, there are difficult battles, especially in the northern part, and we understand that there are minor advances, as our General Staff says. But we understand that these advances are not something to boast about even at the Russian political level, not to mention geopolitics. It is clear that it is difficult for the Ukrainian soldiers of the Defense Forces of Ukraine. It is clear that the Russians have now pushed back their deadlines somewhere until March 2024. Now they will try to do something, to give some result by this date, because they need to keep the Russian occupying forces in good shape, which are suffering heavy, heavy losses,” he explained.
Varchenko noted that the Ukrainian army needs a lot of artillery in order to deter the Russian invaders near Avdiivka.
“For this, we now also need equipment that allows us to work in a high-precision mode, such as drones. We need a good, correct ammunition that can destroy both manpower and equipment,” he added.
