After the failure of the armored assaults, the Russian army is now sending its men “in waves” to try to encircle Abdiivka, with huge losses, as in Bakhmut, according to Ukrainian soldiers defending this city in the eastern part of the country.

“All the fields are just littered with corpses. The Russians are trying to wear out our lines with continuous waves of attacks” by ground forces, Oleksandr, a deputy commander in a Ukrainian battalion of the 47th Motorized Brigade, told AFP while near this industrial Donbas city.

Abdiivka, with a population of around 30,000 before the war, is now largely destroyed and barely 1,500 people live there despite the constant fighting and shelling around it.

For nine years, Ukrainian forces have been entrenched in strong trenches, mainly in the south, where the last suburbs are only 5 km from those of Donetsk, the capital of the Russian-controlled region of the same name.

The city marks the front line in this region and symbolizes the Ukrainian resistance.

However, in early October, Moscow forces launched a major offensive aimed at encircling and then capturing the city.

“Rows of tanks, armored personnel carriers came forward but fell into minefields, were hit by drones and anti-tank missiles” by the Ukrainians, said the 29-year-old, who is a drone operator in the 47th brigade.

According to a Western official who recently spoke to AFP, the Russian military lost more than 200 armored vehicles in these attacks, with the level of casualties on the Ukrainian side “significantly lower” than the Russians in that area.

After the October attacks, the Kiev forces lost some ground, but their defense held. Since then, the Russians “switched to infantry tactics, began to advance exclusively at the expense of human forces,” mainly northeast of Avdiivka, he said.

“Zombie”

The general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said this morning that in 24 hours, the defenders of the “Avdiivka axis” repelled “thirty attacks”.

Russian infantry “move in groups of 5 to 7 soldiers, sometimes more,” at night, to their last position, “then early in the morning, they launch attacks,” the drone operator explained.

“Our artillery is hitting them, a little closer there are mortars, even closer other types of weapons,” such as small drones with explosives or grenade launchers, or even American Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, he added.

“Some get killed, others keep going. It’s like in zombie movies,” continues the young man, who says it’s “a lot like Bahamut.”

The town of Bakhmut, 50 km further north, was captured by the Russians in May after months of bloody fighting.

Waves of soldiers, often recruited in prisons with the promise of pardons if they survived, rushed into Ukrainian lines. And those who fell from the bullets were immediately replaced by others.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the former head of the mercenary organization who was killed earlier this year, had described Bahmut as a “meat machine”.

In Avdiivka it is the same thing, according to Ukrainian soldiers. The Russians “see a lot of corpses (of comrades), but they don’t give up,” according to Oleksandr.

In the northeast of the city, Moscow’s soldiers approached the largest coke factory in Ukraine, which reaches 3,400 hectares, and the village of Stepove, which is 2 kilometers from Berdytsi, where the last access road to Avdiivka passes.

“This road is vital. If they cut him, it will complicate the entrances, evacuations, refueling … But that does not mean that they will stop there. Once again, they are looking for an opportunity to occupy the city”, estimates the deputy commander of the battalion.

The Russians hold the eastern wing and the southern part of Avdiivka. In between, the Ukrainians hold a strip about 8 kilometers wide, from the city to the northwest.

“We can say that Avdiivka is half surrounded,” he continued, saying that the Ukrainian forces deployed there are sufficient to “maintain the defense” of the city.

“There is no reason to withdraw the troops and give up the city,” he said.

Ukrainian missile kills Russian actress while performing for Russian soldiers

A Russian actress was killed in a Ukrainian attack while performing in front of Russian troops in a Russian-controlled region of eastern Ukraine, according to the theater where she worked.

The Russian theater where 40-year-old actress Polina Mensikh worked announced that she was killed while on stage in a village in the Donbas region.

Reuters was unable to ascertain details of the incident but military officials from both sides confirmed that there was a Ukrainian attack in the area on November 19.

A Russian military researcher quoted by Russian state television said HIMARS missiles hit a school and a cultural center in a village in the Donetsk region, listed as Kumachovo, but Ukrainians call it Kumachov, and which is 60 kilometers from first line.

The unnamed investigator said one civilian had been killed, for whom he did not give further details, but did not mention any military casualties.

The Russian Defense Ministry declined to comment and did not say if there were any casualties from the attack.

Ukrainian commanders said their forces hit a Russian military awards ceremony by targeting Russia’s 810th Marine Infantry Brigade.

Robert Brovdi, a Ukrainian military commander, said in a social media post that 25 people were killed in the attack and more than 100 were injured.

Video, the authenticity of which has not been verified, and which was posted on the pro-Russian platform Telegram, shows soldiers watching Mensich sing and play the guitar on stage on the day celebrated by the artillery forces of the Russian army.

During the song, the theater is suddenly shaken by an explosion and windows are heard breaking, then the lights go out and a person appears on camera speaking abusively.

Brovdi said the attack is “retaliation for the 128th” — a reference to the Russian strike this month targeting soldiers from the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade in which the brigade said 19 of its soldiers were killed.

Commenting on the Kumchatsovo attack, some pro-Russian bloggers expressed outrage that so many soldiers had been allowed to gather within range of Ukrainian missiles.