In December, US officials estimated that the Russian military has suffered more than 13,000 casualties along the Avdiivka-Novopavlivka axis in just a few weeks. The Ukrainian military acknowledged in December that the concentration of Russian forces would ultimately prevail. And ISW warns that “Ukrainian forces may have to stabilize the frontline by counter-attacking in the area where Russian forces are trying to close the encirclement of Ukrainian forces in Avdiivka in order to conduct an orderly withdrawal.”Much of Avdiivka now lies in ruins. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/Serhii Nuzhnenko via ReutersThere are already indications that not all Ukrainian units were able to escape an ever-tightening noose. The Ukrainians are adapting swiftly to a new stance of active defense that will continue to bleed Russian forces.

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Persons: General Valery Zaluzhnyi, Maksym Zhoryn, Ukraine’s, Oleksandr Syrskyi, Nuzhnenko, Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, Zhorin, laud, Bakhmut, Volodymr Zelensky, ” Zelensky, Avdiivka Organizations: CNN, Kyiv, Ukrainian Armed Forces, Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade, Institute for, Radio Free, Radio Liberty, Reuters, Russian Defense, Munich Locations: Avdiivka, Donetsk, Radio Free Europe, Kharkiv, Mariinka, Russia, Europe