Five places where Russia is fighting to break Ukrainian lines

Ukraine is locked in a desperate battle to stop the Russian attack.

Russian troops captured the ancient Ukrainian stronghold of Avdiivka before dawn on Saturday, the first major victory on Moscow's battlefield since Bakhmut last May.

But across its 900-kilometer front, Ukraine faces a shortage of ammunition without renewed U.S. military aid, and is struggling to replenish its own depleted forces after two years of brutal fighting.

The Russian attack is split into five major attack lines, spread across towns and cities across much of the front in eastern and southern Ukraine. Here is the status of the Russian offensive in five crucial battles:

1. Avdiivka

Russia captured an old Ukrainian stronghold.

The now destroyed city Avdiivka covers only about twelve square kilometers. But for the better part of a decade it was a bulge in the front line that undermined critical Russian logistics operations. It is located just a few kilometers from the city of Donetsk, which Russia has occupied since 2014.

In recent weeks, Russian forces have severed a critical supply line and threatened to encircle Ukrainian soldiers. Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, the head of Ukrainian forces in the south, said Ukraine had no choice but to withdraw.

“In a situation where the enemy is advancing on the corpses of his own soldiers with a grenade advantage of 10 to 1, under constant bombardment, this is the only correct solution,” he said in a statement.

It is not clear how far the Russians can push this battle beyond Avdiivka, or how well the Ukrainians have built up their next lines of defense. But the next major population centers, home to tens of thousands of citizens, are only about 35 miles to the west.

About 50,000 Russian soldiers deployed in this direction for the battle for Avdiivka, although numbers fluctuated. Western and Ukrainian officials say tens of thousands of Russians have been killed or injured, but Russia has steadily replenished its ranks, including by using convicts to join the fighting.

Even if the lines stabilize after the Russians take the city, its fall allows the Russian army to move troops and equipment behind the line more efficiently as it pushes in other directions.

Read more: Ukraine loses ground and seeks new positions around Avdiivka, February 15

2. Marinka

A destroyed city is now a base for Russian attacks.

Last month, Russian troops finally drove out the last Ukrainian defenders Marinkaanother ancient city on the front line.

Very little is left of Marinka after two years of Russian bombing and battles. But its capture has allowed the Russians to turn their attention to the south and another vital Ukrainian stronghold. Vuhledar.

Last year, the Russians repeatedly tried to attack Vuhledar from the south and suffered catastrophic losses, including a devastating defeat in one of the largest tank battles of the war.

But now that Marinka is under control, the Russians attack Vuhledar from the north. They are currently advancing through the village of Novomykhailivka, which is about 13 miles to the northeast.

It is not clear how many troops the Russians have gathered in this direction, but Ukrainian officials have said Russia has detained about 40,000 in the vicinity Mariupol area that can be used for attacks from the south.

Soldiers fighting in the Vuhledar area said the fall of Avdiivka, 90 kilometers (56 miles) to the northeast, would likely free up Russian forces to step up attacks from the north.

Read more: A trophy in ruins: Evidence grows that Russia controls Marinka, January 4

3. Robotyne

Russia is trying to reverse Ukraine's biggest gains last year.

When Ukraine's failed summer counter-offensive reached its peak last year, its forces had managed to penetrate only about ten miles deep into the southern front, reaching just beyond a small village. Robotyne.

Russia now appears determined to regain what it has lost.

The Russian army has concentrated more troops on this front than on the Avdiivka front, Dmytro Lykhovii, a spokesman for Ukrainian soldiers fighting in the south, said this week.

“It seems that the Russians have set themselves the goal of achieving some success there by storming in, just as they are trying to do in Avdiivka,” he said.

Read more: Russia retakes part of the country that Ukraine heavily captured during a counter-offensive, December 28

4. Kreminna

Russia is pushing from the Kreminna to recapture cities in the northeast that it lost to Ukraine at the end of 2022.

Since the Russians were expelled from occupied territories in northeastern Ukraine more than a year ago – losing control of more than 500 settlements spread over 11,000 square kilometers – they have been fighting to regain the land.

Last year, little territory changed hands, despite heavy fighting in the forest areas along the front here. Now Russia is starting to make progress again, albeit slowly, despite fierce Ukrainian resistance.

Russian troops are advancing from the city in two directions Kreminna: towards the battered city Kupiansk to the north, and to Lyman, 80 miles south. Russia has maintained a force of about 110,000 troops in the area for months despite losses, Illia Yevlash, a spokesperson for the military in the area, told reporters earlier this month.

Read more: Ukraine and Russia compete for a gateway in the east, December 27

5. Bakmut

Russia has regained momentum and a major Ukrainian city could come within artillery range.

Russia destroyed and then seized the city Bakmut in May, its last significant territorial gain on the battlefield before advancing on Avdiivka this week. By the time the Russians took Bakhmut, their forces were exhausted, and the Wagner mercenary group that led the battle was in open rebellion against the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Ukrainian hopes of exploiting the disorder to launch a counterattack around the city's flanks have largely stalled. Now it is the Russians who have the initiative.

General Oleksandr Syrsky, the newly appointed commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, recently said that the Russians are determined to close their defense line around Chasiv Yarwhich would give them control of the heights in the area and expose the city Kramatorsk to more artillery fire. Some 62,000 Russian soldiers are, according to Ukrainian estimates, on the ground in the direction of Bakhmut.

“The situation is tense and requires constant monitoring of the overall situation and rapid decision-making on the ground,” General Syrsky said in a statement earlier this month.

Read more: Why Bakmut? It's a question as old as war., May 5, 2023