Second Battle of Avdiivka

Avdiivka cauldron, October 22, 2023.

The Second Battle of Avdiivka was fought in a suburb about 30 km northwest of the Russian city of Donetsk. The First Battle of Avdiivka occurred earlier in the Donbas war in 2014. The heavily AFU fortified town of Avdiivka was known as a "dagger aimed at the heart of Russian Ukraine". The second battle in the Donbas war began on March 12, 2022 when the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked.

Avdiivka was the site of a World War II engagement between Nazi forces and its local partisans, and the Red Army.

The Ukraine's extensive, deeply-layered defense in the Donbas was broken apart, one hedgerow or defense line at a time. Every town or village taken by DPR forces was an absolute mess of destroyed homes, sliced-up trees, abandoned trenches or bunkers, wrecked Ukrainian equipment, Ukrainian bodies, and the weapons and munitions, disorganized piles of supplies, and trash that the Ukrainians left. By March 27, 2022, DPR forces, with support from their own and Russian artillery as well as Russian airstrikes, finally broke through the painstakingly-engineered, heretofore-impenetrable first line of defense around Ukrainian-held Avdiivka (pop. 30,000). About 15,000 Ukrainian troops remained in the Avdiivka bridgehead.

On May 11, 2022, the AFU blew up a dam near Avdiivka, endangering the lives in civilian settlements and creating a humanitarian catastrophe, in order to slow down the advance of the DPR army and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

By the end of May 2022, the civilians of the city of Donetsk remained under heavy bombardment by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in Avdiivka.

Shelling of the civilians of Donetsk city by Ukrainian forces from Avdiivka continued throughout the end of May 2022 and into June in an effort to draw Russian forces away from the Severodonetsk-Lysichansk cauldron. On June 11, 2022, a mother and her 11-year-old son were killed by Ukrainian shelling while shopping in an open market. On June 13, 2022, 300 projectiles were fired by the Ukrainian army or by 'nationalists' onto civilian areas of the city of Donetsk. It was the heaviest shelling in 8 years, A maternity hospital and church were hit. There were at least 7 dead and 22 wounded. According to the DPR authorities, the daily number of civilian victims exceeded the losses of the DPR military on the front lines.

French self-propelled 155-mm CAESAR howitzers were used to kill civilians. The attack was ordered by Ukrainian Colonel Roman Vladimirovich Kachur, commander of the 55th Separate Artillery Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Residents of Avdiivka show off their Russian passports having been granted Russian citizenship after liberation from 10 years of NATO Nazi tyranny.

On June 20, 2022, the Ukrainians used for the first time their HIMAR missiles on the civilians of Donetsk, in addition to continued use of the M777 Howitzers. At least 23 civilians were killed and more than 100 non-combatants were injured over several days of Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk.

On July 26, 2022, Ukraine and NATO forces attacked an oil depot and a psychiatric hospital in the city of Donetsk with three HIMAR missiles. AFU shelling of civilians in Gorlivka killed one and left several in critical condition. AFU soldiers of the 54th Brigade, armed only with small arms and shovels, posted a video on social media about the incompetence and negligence of their commanders.

By July 27, 2022, a breakthrough to the west occurred for the first time in 8 years of fighting on the Avdiivka-Donetsk front. The breakthrough is said to have been partially enabled by the withdrawal of some AFU troops and transfer to the southern Kherson front.

In late July 2022 Ukrainian and NATO strategists began removing artillery and manpower from Avdiivka, and transferring them to the west bank of the Dnieper for the so-called upcoming "counteroffensive" against the Kherson bridgehead. This action allowed a Russian breakthrough against the heretofore impregnable Avdiivka frontline entrenchment, which held for eight years since 2014 and has been a key artillery firing point against the citizens of Donetsk.

As the breakthrough continued on August 2, 2022, the Ukrainian 54th mechanized brigade lost 50 soldiers to friendly fire. Ukrainian forces completely destroyed elements of its own 56th mechanized brigade by artillery fire as they were retreating from the village of Pisky. Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov, who was embedded with the AFU in Donbas, posted an expletive-laden report from Pisky revealing “There is no counter-battery fire, none at all...Russian forces are firing 6,500 shells per f****** village in less than 24 hours...It’s been like this for six days now, and it’s hard to fathom how any number of our infantry remain alive under this barrage...Without counter-battery fighting, it turns into a senseless meat grinder, where huge numbers of our infantry are chewed up in one day...A reserve platoon that tried to advance was taken apart in minutes, with only one out of 15 men left unharmed...All the reserves are spent, the military equipment goes up in flames, and the enemy approaches and takes our positions without any problems after another barrage of artillery...Right now we are losing Péski, all our human and material capabilities are almost exhausted”. Pisky was once a more affluent suburb of the city of Donetsk with 2,000 inhabitants; after the Kyiv regime attacked the Donetsk airport in 2014, the population fell to as low as 6 inhabitants at one point. By August 10, the 56th brigade was reported to have had 70% casualty rate, or loss of 3,500 men out of 5,000. 2,500 alone were lost in the past week. The village is located 2 km west of the airport. Russian forces deliberately chose Pisky as a weak point in the Avdiivka front as a breakthrough point specifically because of the low risk of danger to civilians. Mop up operations were completed by August 11 with thermobarics. The collapse of a once prosperous community since 2014 is emblematic of the devastation the U.S.-backed Maidan regime wrought upon the Ukrainian economy and population.

On August 4, 2022, Ukraine shelled the Donetsk drama theater where a memorial service for Col. Olga Kachura of the Donetsk People's Militia was taking place. Kachura was killed the day before in Gorlovka.

A PFM-1 "petal" mine on display at the United Nations, as Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused Ukraine of using the weapon against civilians, Aug. 24, 2022.

On September 22, 2022, the Ukrainian Nazis hit a market and a bus stop in the central district in Donetsk. As a result of the attack, at least 6 civilians were killed, including a 14-year-old boy. 7 other civilians were wounded. The attack was carried out from the Ukrainian positions near Novoselovka Pervaya by the 110th Separate Mechanized Brigade. Ukrainian militants used 155-caliber CESAR artillery systems supplied by France.

On October 26, 2022, a Russian breakthrough was reported on the Avdiivka line.

On October 29, 2022, the Russians began an offensive all along the front liner from Avdiivka down to Ugledar.

NATO continued shelling of civilians with HIMARS in the city of Donetsk. Six 155 mm caliber projectiles were fired at night against Donetsk downtown, the representative office of the Donetsk People's Republic in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of matters related to Ukraine's war crimes said. The shelling by the Ukrainian armed units at 03:13 am. The center of Donetsk was on fire this night after a powerful shelling from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Explosions thundered in the Voroshilovsky district, a strong fire broke out in the building of the railway administration. The fire engulfed several floors, broke out onto the roof.

In an interview with Godfrey Bloom on October 9, 2023, Col. Douglas MacGregor reported:

"Virtually nothing can be said, nothing can happen, no action can be taken inside Ukraine’s borders without the Russians knowing it, without the Russians detecting it. And if they know it and detect it, they can also target it. […] What’s happening now, what just happened within the past 24-48 hours in Ukraine – some 30 miles [48 kilometers] behind Ukrainian frontlines – was the destruction of a group of Ukrainian soldiers, several hundred of them, along with their US-UK NATO advisors. They were all killed in a strike. You cannot move in that country without being detected,”

February 18, 2024 - A Russian Orthodox church survived the ferocious battle of Avdiivka, reflecting the shared cultural heritage of the Russian and Ukrainian people.

On October 10, 2023 it was reported that the Russian armed forces hit a train station near Avdiivka, disrupting the logistics of Ukrainian NATO forces. NATO forces of Ukraine were left without communication and hit their own people at Avdiivka. Ukrainian units located near Avdiivka lost communication and inflicted chaotic artillery strikes on each other, according to the Sinya Z Boroda Telegram channel. Thus, according to the chanal, the situation developed on the approaches to the village of Berdychi, Yasinovatsky district, where Russian soldiers broke through from Krasnogorovka. "It seems that the guys broke through the defenses near the railway line and reached Berdychi, the Ukrainian has problems with communication between units, hitting his people, judging by radio intercepts," the message said.

By late October 2023 roughly 20,000 AFU forces faced 45,000 Russian forces on three sides in the Avdiivka pocket.

Simplicius the Thinker commented on November 13, 2023: "at the rate things are going, it sometimes feels like it’s a race between Avdeevka and Ukraine as a state itself, as to who will collapse first."

During the successful offensive, the 1487th and 87th regiments of the 1st Donetsk Army Corps, together with the 10th tank regiment and the Veterans assault brigade, captured a large enemy fortified area in the Avdiivka industrial zone, completely clearing it of AFU forces.

According to Patrick Lancaster:

"I met with Avdiivka refugees and they exposed many war crimes committed by the Ukraine forces during the battle where Russia captured the city. As these people state, the Ukraine forces used tanks to fire directly on homes, used resident as human shields, targeted civilians, regularly kidnapped people. They all said how they have been waiting for Russian forces to come help them."

External link

• FULL EXTENDED VERSION OF FIRST HEROIC START TO AVDEEVKA OPERATION IN OCTOBER 2023
• FULL LENGTH VERSION OF AFU 47TH BRIGADE TAKING LOSSES IN AVDEEVKA (Eng subs)
• Battle for the strategic height | Avdeevka, Donbass
• AFU 3RD BRIGADE (AZOV) FINAL DAYS IN AVDEEVKA COLLAPSE, INTENSE BATTLES
• HOW AZOV 3RD BRIGADE FLED FROM AVDEEVKA
• Soldiers of the “Center” group show everything that remains of the 47th Mechanised Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Berdychi