“The fighting has been going on for four days,” Vitalii Barabash, the head of the Avdiivka city military administration, told Ukrainian national television on Friday. Both small arms battles and artillery duels.”According to Barabash, Russia has been “firing everything they have available” at the city in a bid to encircle Ukrainian fighters. They are not human beings, they are titans.”Ukrainian President Voloydymr Zelensky also said his country’s troops were keeping Russian forces at bay. Avdiivka, a city very close to the Donetsk city airport, had already been the front line between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists since 2014. It is seen by Ukrainian and Russian forces as a heavily fortified stronghold, with entrenchments built up over the past eight years.

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Persons: ” Vitalii Barabash, “, ”, Volodymyr Zelensky, Jens Stoltenberg, Virginia, AP Barabash, ” Barabash, Voloydymr Zelensky, ” Zelensky, Zelensky, Oleksandr Shtupun, Avdiivka, that’s, Barabash Organizations: CNN, Russian, Ukrainian, NATO, Virginia Mayo, AP, Institute for, ” CNN Locations: Ukrainian, Avdiivka, Barabash, Russia, Donetsk oblast, “, Donetsk, Russian, Mariupol