Russian forces dropped 250 aerial bombs on the city of Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast in just the first two weeks of the year, Governor Vadim Filashkin told Radio Svoboda on Jan. 15.
In comparison, the city was hit by 146 air strikes during the entire year of 2023, Filashkin said.
Avdiivka lies around 10 kilometers north of the regional center of Donetsk, which has been under Russian occupation since 2014. Russia began to intensify its attacks against Avdiivka in early October 2023.
The city remains a primary direction of Russian attacks in the area, Commander Oleksandr Tarnavskyi told the BBC on Dec. 27. Ukrainian forces have continued to defend the largely destroyed city and prevented Russia from securing significant gains.
Russian forces likely want to avoid entering the city and engaging in the type of brutal street combat that was seen in the battle for Bakhmut, Tarnavskyi said.
According to Filashkin, 1,131 civilians remain in Avdiivka. An estimated 31,000 people lived in the city before the outbreak of the full-scale invasion in 2022, and just 2,000 remained as of March 2023.
Over the past day, one person was injured, and 71 people, including nine children, were evacuated from the front-line city, Filashkin reported.
Elsa Court
