Kyiv made a choice: Avdiivka is more important than the “counter-offensive” and Bakhmut

The Ukrainian Armed Forces are withdrawing units from other directions and transferring them to Donetsk

The Ukrainian command was afraid of the movement of Russian troops into Avdeevka near Donetsk, which began three days ago, and began to strengthen its grouping in this area. Several military officers and observers wrote about this at once.

Thus, military blogger Yuriy Podolyaka, citing his sources, reported on Friday, October 13, that the Ukrainian Armed Forces were stopping the “counter-offensive” to save Avdiivka. According to him, Kyiv is transferring its reserves here, including from areas where the Ukrainian Armed Forces have tried to advance in recent weeks. Kyiv was clearly afraid that the group’s envelopment in Avdeevka could end in a cauldron. The expert’s conclusion is: “The battle here is expected to be long and serious.”

The channel led by the Vostok battalion notes that all attention is focused, including on the Avdeevsky direction, where the situation is most acute. One of the tactical goals there is to take the local waste heap – an embankment: “Of course, it won’t be possible to mount artillery there – everything is clear in the open. But height is height.”

Military publicist Alexey Zhivov correctly notes that “assault work in Avdiivka is in full swing” and talking about its intermediate results is “simply pointless.” At the same time, he believes, “the assault in Avdiivka may be part of a much larger military plan at the operational or strategic level.”

In turn, the commander of the Vostok battalion, deputy head of the Russian Guard department for the DPR, Alexander Khodakovsky, described the tactics that, in his opinion, are the most advantageous in the current situation in the Northern Military District zone. Its meaning is that “the city must be surrounded, deprived of supply and access to everything, and facing the enemy, build a second front line, which will continue to move to the next large city, and then repeat the procedure.”

According to him, if you go ahead and “act frontally, then the next bakhmuts will be easier to demolish and rebuild.” Alexander Khodakovsky warns that every fortified area of ​​the Ukrainian Armed Forces will resist us quite effectively, “and we will hit the cities like our heads against a wall.” The most successful option for us with this tactic: “the enemy, fearing encirclement by greatly superior forces, will himself begin to retreat behind a large water barrier.”

Another factor that will be in our favor is the likely internal Ukrainian processes. “Everything is gradually moving towards this,” Khodakovsky sums up.