Straddling the frontlines, the small town of Avdiivka has become the epicenter of the war in Ukraine. Still in Ukrainian hands \u2013 just \u2013 it\u2019s enclosed on three sides by Russian troops and cannons. <\/p>\n
Pounded by the Russians, the town itself is unrecognizable. <\/p>\n
Concrete carcasses mark\u00a0what were once\u00a0the town\u2019s tallest buildings,\u00a0seemingly\u00a0floating amid small hills of rubble. The cross atop the town\u2019s church\ufeff,\u00a0bent double by an explosion, points\u00a0accusatorially at the Russian lines. <\/p>\n
Amid the ruins, Russian and Ukrainian troops clash, preyed upon by drones and the occasional tank. Casualties\u00a0are\u00a0heavy on both sides but especially among the Russian attackers, who have thrown wave after human wave against the entrenched defenders. <\/p>\n
\u201cNobody evacuates them, nobody takes them away,\u201d he said. \u201cIt feels like people don\u2019t have a specific task, they just go and die.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cTeren,\u201d the commander of a Ukrainian drone reconnaissance unit in the town, said that even \u201cif we can kill 40\u00a0to\u00a070 servicemen with drones in a day, the next day they renew their forces and continue to attack.\u201d <\/p>\n
In 18 months of fighting around the town, he said, his pilots from the 110th Mechanized Brigade have killed at least 1,500 Russians. Still, they keep coming. <\/p>\n
Ukrainian casualties are a closely guarded secret, but the battle has turned into an attritional slog, matching seemingly\u00a0chaotic\u00a0Russian attacks against the limited,\u00a0but determined,\u00a0resources and manpower of the Ukrainians. <\/p>\n
In a surprise trip to Avdiivka in\u00a0late\u00a0December, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the battle for the town as an \u201conslaught,\u201d adding\u00a0that\u00a0the battle could in many ways \u201cdetermine the overall course of the war.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s leaders appear conscious of the criticisms around the defense \u2013 but subsequent fall \u2013 of Bakhmut in 2023, acknowledging the obvious tensions between holding on to locations without huge strategic significance and protecting the lives of soldiers. <\/p>\n
\u201cEvery piece of our land is precious to us,\u201d army chief Valery Zaluzhny said, but in Avdiivka, \u201cthere is no need to do anything remotely reminiscent of a show.\u201d <\/p>\n
But those lives depend on weapons and arms. <\/p>\n
Rushing to set up their Soviet\ufeff-era\u00a0rocket launcher \u2013 bolted on to the back of an American pick-up \u2013 one of the men flicked the switch to launch a salvo. <\/p>\n
Clicks \u2013 and curses \u2013 followed. Frozen\u00a0solid, the rockets wouldn\u2019t fire. <\/p>\n
Reliant on the kit they have, not the Western hardware they crave, they know that each lost chance to fire back at Russians may cost Ukrainian lives. <\/p>\n
A few days later, a supply truck chewed through the mud of a field around the nearby town of Marinka, bringing much-needed shells to a gun position. <\/p>\n
But the cannon \u2013 a US-supplied M777 howitzer \u2013 is silent for much of the day, rationed to around 20 shells a day, 30 on a \u201cgood day\u201d the gunners said. Last summer, supporting Ukraine\u2019s failed\u00a0counteroffensive, the gun crew would fire at least twice as many foreign rounds, many American-made, at the Russians, they said.\u00a0<\/strong> <\/p>\n A delivery later in the day brought four shells but nothing that would do the Russians much harm: they were only smoke shells. <\/p>\n \u201cThey use old Soviet systems,\u201d Korsar said, \u201cbut Soviet systems can still kill.\u201d <\/p>\n However, US support to Ukraine \u2013 including much-needed shells \u2013 no longer seems assured. Future aid packages are still mired in Capitol Hill squabbling,\u00a0and the specter of a\u00a0possible\u00a0Ukraine-aid-averse Trump presidency on the horizon adds further uncertainty. <\/p>\n US\u00a0National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby put it plainly this month: \u201cThe assistance that we provided has now ground to a halt. The attacks that the Russians are conducting are only increasing.\u201d <\/p>\n But when they can put their Western weapons to use, the Ukrainians have much more to celebrate in Avdiivka. <\/p>\n The tip of the spear during last year\u2019s ill-fated Ukrainian counteroffensive, the Bradley\u00a0Fighting\u00a0Vehicle \u2013\u00a0gifted to Ukraine by the US\u00a0and designed to support infantry\u00a0\u2013 is\u00a0reinforcing\u00a0its reputation blunting waves of Russian attacks. <\/p>\n \u201cThe vehicle is a tough one,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not afraid of anything.\u201d <\/p>\n But the US-made\u00a0Bradleys are in limited supply along the front. <\/p>\n Some 200 Bradleys were promised by the US and dozens have been damaged and destroyed in battle.\u00a0Some of these will likely have been repaired and sent back to the frontlines. <\/p>\n Ukrainian crews, although admirers of the Bradley\u2019s power, have\u00a0also\u00a0criticized its ability to weather the harsh Ukrainian winter and the state of some of the older vehicles shipped by the US. <\/p>\n Ukraine\u2019s lack of firepower compared to its adversary is a common theme on the front line. \u201cTeren\u201d the commander of a nearby drone reconnaissance unit, said\u00a0outright\u00a0that Ukraine doesn\u2019t have enough arms and equipment to win against Russia. <\/p>\n The\u00a0Ukrainians\u00a0are forced to be better pilots and more inventive with their\u00a0limited\u00a0resources, he said. <\/p>\n \u201cAt the beginning of the war, their advantage in drones was 10 times greater than ours,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cAt the moment, I think we are a worthy opponent in the drone format. We cover the sky around the clock.\u201d <\/p>\n The powerful cameras on one drone caught two Russian soldiers desperately take aim at a weaving suicide drone, the smoke from their rifles and cigarettes billowing into the cold air. The Ukrainian drone dives into the narrow dugout behind them and explodes. <\/p>\n Still, the Russian assaults continue,\u00a0meaning\u00a0holding Avdiivka is now a matter of numbers,\u00a0said \u201cBess,\u201d the special forces sniper. <\/p>\n \u201cIf there is a liter bottle, there\u2019s no way you can fit a liter and a half in it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n To balance Russia\u2019s superior numbers, Ukraine\u2019s leadership \u2013 under pressure from the country\u2019s top generals \u2013 is weighing a possible half a million extra troops to bolster the military\u2019s ranks. <\/p>\n Life in Ukrainian cities away from the front appears relatively untouched by the fighting, at least on the surface.\u00a0Although\u00a0recruitment posters and military checkpoints dot highways and men in uniform are a regular sight,\u00a0there\u2019s little overt sign of\u00a0wartime restrictions or changes to daily life. Supermarkets are full and cafes brim with customers. <\/p>\n But conscription is a touchy subject. <\/p>\n The Ukrainian president does have the power to enforce further mobilization \u2013 currently limited to those\u00a0aged\u00a0over 27 \u2013 but has chosen to seek parliamentary approval for it. The bill is slowly \u2013 and not without difficulty \u2013 making its way through lawmakers\ufeff\u2019 scrutiny. <\/p>\n Zelensky has also questioned how to pay for the mobilization, with six taxpayers required\u00a0to pay\u00a0for\u00a0the salary\u00a0of each\u00a0soldier in uniform, he said. <\/p>\n His reticence is a sign of the political sensitivities\u00a0around\u00a0public opinion in Ukraine, even as the country\u2019s enemies make no secret of their violent ambitions for Kyiv. <\/p>\n \u201cThe existence of Ukraine is deadly for Ukrainians,\u201d Russia\u2019s former\u00a0President Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia\u2019s Security Council and\u00a0one of the most hawkish Russian politicians, posted on Telegram on January 17. <\/p>\n \u201cWhy? The existence of an independent state on the historical Russian territories will now be a constant pretext for the resumption of combat actions,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n The soldiers, tired though rarely disgruntled,\u00a0acknowledged\u00a0that reinforcements would provide a welcome increase in their rotations off the front line. <\/p>\n For now, though, that remains a\u00a0distant\u00a0hope, as in Avdiivka the fight rages on. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know what will happen next,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>But Avdiivka is holding on. We are on our land. We have nothing to lose.\u201d <\/p>\n\n Straddling the frontlines, the small town of Avdiivka has become the epicenter of the war in Ukraine. Still in Ukrainian hands \u2013 just \u2013 it\u2019s enclosed on three sides by Russian troops and cannons. Pounded by the Russians, the town itself is unrecognizable. Concrete carcasses mark\u00a0what were once\u00a0the town\u2019s tallest buildings,\u00a0seemingly\u00a0floating amid small hills of <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} An overflowing cup<\/h2>\n