Ukraine feels the strain amid 'very heated' fighting in Avdiivka as Russia presses on with new Donbas offensive
- Fighting in Avdiivka, near Ukraine's eastern front, has entered the fifth day.
- The head of Avdiivka's military administration said the situation was "very heated," per the AFP.
The fighting in Avdiivka, near Ukraine's eastern front, is "very heated" as fighting enters its fifth day, the head of the city's military administration, Vitaliy Barabash, said on Ukrainian television, per the news agency Agence France-Presse.
"For the fifth day already, the enemy has not stopped either assaulting or shelling positions around the city. It is very heated, very heated," he said, per the AFP.
The city of Avdiivka, just south of the war-torn city of Bakhmut, has long been the target of Russian forces — and fighting has turned the area into "a place from post-apocalyptic movies," Ukrainian officials said earlier this year.
The city is thought to only have around 1,600 civilians remaining, compared to 31,000 before the war, the AFP reported.
"They have substantial reserves of personnel and equipment. Avdiivka is completely ablaze," Barabash previously said about the region, The Independent reported.
He added that Russia's new push in the area was "the largest-scale offensive action in our sector since the full-fledged war began."
In an address to the nation on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned Avdiivka as the scene of some of the most intense fighting in the country, but he added that Ukrainian brigades had "already destroyed hundreds of occupier's armored vehicles."
Insider previously reported that Russia had lost at least 15 tanks and 33 armored vehicles during its new attack on the city.
Fighting is also continuing to rage across other parts of the country, with the situation in the northern part of the eastern front having "significantly worsened," Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Kyiv's ground forces, said, per Reuters. "The main objective of the enemy is the defeat of a grouping of our troops, the encirclement of Kupiansk and to reach the Oskil River."
Syrskyi said that there have been "dozens" of strikes and that Russian forces were attacking near the village of Makiivka, Donetsk Oblast and towards the city of Kupiansk, Kharkiv Oblast.
The White House said Friday that Russia has resumed employing the so-called "human wave" tactic in its war against Ukraine.
"As was the case during Russia's failed winter offensive last year, the Russian military appears to be using human wave tactics, where they throw masses of poorly trained soldiers right into the battlefield without proper equipment, and ... without proper training and preparation," John Kirby, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, said.