Avdiivka, 2023-2024

The battle, stage by stage

1. 10-12 October 2023

   Pincers north and south

   On 10 October 2023 Russian forces opened a large offensive against Avdiivka [Avdeevka], a fortified town just north of Donetsk that Ukrainian forces had held on the front line since 2014-15. Mechanized columns attacked on both flanks at once: in the north from the Krasnohorivka area toward Stepove and the waste heap beside the Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant, and in the south-west from Vodiane and from Spartak toward Sieverne and the town's southern edge, aiming at the narrow neck through which the town was supplied. The Ukrainian military observer Kostyantyn Mashovets, cited by ISW, named the 114th, 1st and 9th Motor Rifle Brigades of the 1st Army Corps; Ukraine's General Staff spoke of three brigades of the 8th Combined Arms Army. ISW geolocated small advances near Sieverne, Stepove and Krasnohorivka and estimated 4.52 sq km taken by 12 October; DeepState counted 3.69 sq km by 17 October. Ukrainian officials at first described the attack as a fixing operation. (Sources: ISW 11-12 Oct 2023, with Mashovets; Ukrainian General Staff; DeepState via Espreso 17 Oct.)

2. 19-31 October 2023

   The waste heap and the railway

   After regrouping, Russian forces launched a second wave of mechanized assaults on 19-20 October. The fight centered on the 'Terrikon', a huge waste heap next to the coke plant that overlooks the northern approaches. Ukrainian sources called it a gray zone on about 23 October; Russian sources claimed the railway line north of it. By late October the heap was in Russian hands, according to John Hardie's later analysis for FDD's Long War Journal (one account gives 28 October). The 110th Mechanized Brigade, which had held the town for about two years, was reinforced in October by the 47th Mechanized Brigade (Hardie). ISW reported on 26 October that satellite imagery confirmed at least 109 Russian vehicles, mainly armored, lost near Avdiivka between 10 and 20 October; Ukraine's Tavria group claimed about 5,000 Russian killed and wounded and 400 armored vehicles by 26 October. Russia did not publish its losses. (Sources: ISW 20 and 26 Oct 2023; Kyiv Post 24 Oct; Reporting from Ukraine / Euromaidan Press 16 Oct; Hardie, LWJ. The date of the heap's capture rests on one account and is not corroborated.)

3. November-December 2023

   Stepove and the industrial zone

   Russian infantry, now attacking mostly in small groups after heavy armor losses, crossed the railway near Stepove in early November (Mashovets, cited by ISW) and pressed toward the coke plant from the north. In the south-east, fighting moved into the industrial zone on the edge of the town near Yasynuvata-2 station: ISW confirmed Russian advances in its eastern part on 26 November, while Russian bloggers claimed all of it. On 8 December ISW geolocated Russian forces at the sewage treatment plant north-west of the town and on the outskirts of the coke plant. Ukraine's Tavria group put the Russian force on the axis at more than 40,000 troops. Metinvest, the plant's owner, said in December that the plant could not be restored. (Sources: ISW 1-2 Nov, 26 Nov, 8 Dec 2023, via Ukrainska Pravda and Ukrainian News; Wikipedia used only for leads.)

4. January 2024

   The pipe and 'Tsarska Okhota'

   In mid-January Russian assault troops entered the southern edge of the town. Russian sources said that about 150 men had crawled almost 2 km through an underground pipe (which they gave as 0.8 m across) and come out behind the fortified 'Tsarska Okhota' restaurant complex on the road toward Donetsk. The Conflict Intelligence Team called the account implausible at the time, noting that no photos or video of the pipe had been published, but Ukrainska Pravda's later reconstruction from Ukrainian soldiers describes a mostly empty service water pipe about 1.3-1.4 m high, used from about 15 January, and a Ukrainian special-forces soldier said on 6 February that Russian troops were still using it. Hardie and the Kyiv Post name the 60th 'Veterans' assault brigade; a Russian prisoner quoted by CIT (14-16 February) said Storm-Z penal units carried out the operation. A Russian lawmaker, Eduard Sharafiyev, later said an earlier attempt was hit by Ukrainian artillery as troops gathered at the entrance (Kyiv Independent). No source we found gives losses for the group that went through the pipe. Ukrainian accounts describe heavy fighting: on 29 January Avdiivka's administration head Vitaliy Barabash said the restaurant complex had been retaken and infiltrating groups neutralized (Focus); a Ukrainian drone unit released video of soldiers who had come out of a sewer near Tsarska Okhota being struck (Business Insider could not verify it); and the Kyiv Post later wrote that the Russians were dislodged after heavy fighting. The pipe tactic is often confused with the March 2025 gas-pipeline operation at Sudzha in Russia's Kursk region, where a Ukrainian officer claimed about 80% of the Russian troops were neutralized; that figure does not refer to Avdiivka. ISW confirmed Russian advances near Tsarska Okhota from geolocated footage on 21 January, and DeepState reported visual evidence of Russian troops in the south of the town. The infiltration exposed the left flank of the Zenit strongpoint, held by a company of the 110th Brigade. Russian guided glide bombs were now falling on the town daily. (Sources: ISW 21 Jan 2024 via Kyiv Post; CIT 22-24 Jan and 14-16 Feb; DeepState via CIT; Ukrainska Pravda 22 Feb 2024; Focus 29 Jan 2024; Business Insider 3 Feb 2024; Kyiv Independent; Kyiv Post 22 Sep 2026; Euromaidan Press 8 Mar 2025 (Sudzha); Hardie, LWJ.)

5. Early February 2024

   Breakthrough in the north; the 3rd Assault Brigade

   In early February Russian forces broke into the town from the north through the 'Ivushka' garden plots, bypassing the coke plant, and moved through the dacha area between the quarry and the lakes. According to Hardie, the 114th Motor Rifle Brigade, the 30th Motor Rifle Brigade and the 80th Tank Regiment led the main effort, and Central Military District brigades of the 41st Army (35th, 55th, 74th) entered the fight by about 9 February. Ukraine sent in the 3rd Assault Brigade; accounts of its arrival range from 3 to 13 February. Its 1st Assault Battalion pushed the attackers back toward the railway but could not hold the ground (Ukrainska Pravda). In the south, Russian forces took Opytne and began threatening Zenit from the west around 11 February. Ukrainian soldiers quoted by Ukrainska Pravda put the infantry ratio at about 1 to 12. (Sources: Hardie, LWJ; Ukrainska Pravda 22 Feb 2024; Kyiv Post 16 Feb; ISW 15 Feb.)

6. 13-16 February 2024

   The road is cut; Zenit

   On 13 February Russian forces cut Industrialnyi Avenue, the main road into the town, after taking the 'Avtobaza' compound, and on 15 February took the 'Brevno' strongpoint at the western entrance; ISW confirmed from geolocated footage that the last internal road linking northern and southern Avdiivka had been cut. The Zenit garrison, at a former air-defense base south of the town, was ordered out on 14-15 February and withdrew on foot in small groups about 1 km north under fire; wounded soldiers who could not walk were left behind. The 110th Brigade said Russia had agreed to evacuate them; a video posted by a Russian Telegram channel on 17 February showed them dead, relatives identified three of them, and Ukraine's human-rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets asked the UN and the Red Cross to investigate their killing after capture (Euromaidan Press, 21 Feb 2024). No independent investigation of the Zenit killings has been published; the UN human rights monitoring mission separately reported credible information on the execution of 32 captured Ukrainian soldiers along the front between December 2023 and February 2024. General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi announced the withdrawal from Zenit on 16 February, and DeepState reported it in Russian hands; Hardie credits the 1st 'Slavic' Brigade. Russian forces also took the Donetsk Filter Station east of the town. Exhausted units of the 110th Brigade had been withdrawn around 13 February (Hardie). The 53rd Mechanized Brigade held the 9th Quarter; the 3rd Assault Brigade fell back to the coke plant. (Sources: Euromaidan Press 21 Feb 2024 (Lubinets); OHCHR report Dec 2023-Feb 2024, via Euromaidan Press 26 Mar 2024; ISW 15 Feb 2024; DeepState via Ukrainian News 16 Feb; CIT 14-16 Feb; Hardie, LWJ; Ukrainska Pravda 22 Feb; Kyiv Post 16 Feb.)

7. 17 February 2024 and after

   Withdrawal

   Shortly before 1 a.m. on 17 February Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi announced the withdrawal from Avdiivka 'to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of servicemen', to 'more favorable lines'. Units left along dirt roads toward Lastochkyne and Sieverne while the 225th Assault Battalion, intelligence, special-operations and border-guard teams held the corridor; the 47th Brigade's 25th Assault Battalion was the last unit out of the coke plant. Russia's Defense Ministry said on 17 February that its forces had taken full control of the town and, on 19 February, of the coke plant; President Putin credited Central Military District and 1st Army Corps units. Estimates of Ukrainian soldiers captured range from about 100 (U.S. officials, cited by Hardie) to 850-1,000 (two Ukrainian soldiers, cited by The New York Times); a Russian commander claimed about 200 surrendered. Fewer than 1,000 civilians remained of about 31,000 before the war. Russian forces then took Lastochkyne (24 February, per DeepState), Stepove and Sieverne (about 24-27 February) and Orlivka (March). (Sources: AP 17 Feb 2024; ISW 17 Feb; Meduza 19 Feb; Hardie, LWJ; DeepState; Ukrainian military statements.)