War in Ukraine: Russia likely preparing more assaults on Avdiivka
Russian forces are likely preparing for another wave of highly attritional infantry-led ground assaults on Ukrainian positions in the Avdiivka area.
Transcript
00:00 Russian forces are likely preparing for another wave of highly attritional infantry-led ground
00:09 assaults on Ukrainian positions in the Avdiivka area, says the Institute for the Study of
00:15 War in its latest assessment.
00:17 The US-based think tank refers to the Kremlin-affiliated Russian millbloggers who claim that Russian
00:23 forces near Avdiivka have largely slowed the pace of ground attacks north and south of
00:31 Avdiivka in favour of heavy indirect fire against Ukrainian front-line positions and
00:39 near-rear areas.
00:41 This heavy fire is more likely air and artillery preparations for the battlefield ahead of
00:47 another wave of Russian assaults.
00:50 The Institute for the Study of War says they might be preparing to transition to such infantry-led
00:55 frontal assaults following heavy artillery preparations to compensate for heavy material
01:00 losses in Avdiivka over the course of October.
01:03 Open source geolocation project GeoConfirmed characterised the Russian effort near Avdiivka
01:09 as the costliest Russian effort thus far in the war in Ukraine.
01:14 The Institute for the Study of War says the current situation near Avdiivka is a microcosm
01:19 of the Russian General Staff's wider failure to internalise and disseminate lessons learned
01:25 by Russian forces during previous failed offensive efforts in Ukraine to other force groupings
01:31 throughout the theatre.
01:32 Various Russian elements have engaged in similarly catastrophic mechanised attacks with infantry-led
01:38 frontal assaults on fortified Ukrainian positions along several different axes over the course
01:44 of 2022 and 2023.
01:47 [SWOOSH]