The Battle of Avdiivka was a major battle between the Russian and Ukrainian Armed Forces for control of Avdiivka, a city in Donetsk Oblast, during the Russo-Ukrainian war (2022–present). After more than a year and a half of intermittent fighting along the city's outskirts, Russian forces launched an offensive to capture Avdiivka on 10 October 2023, resulting in what was considered one of the bloodiest and fiercest battles of the war.
Avdiivka was one of the most fortified settlements in Ukraine and had been described as a "gateway" to the nearby provincial capital of Donetsk. Ukraine's control of Avdiivka had prevented Russian forces from using Donetsk and its resources as a communications hub and prevented Russian breakthroughs on this axis.
On 17 February 2024, with the last Ukrainian supply routes into the city under serious threat, commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi announced that Ukrainian forces were being withdrawn from the city "to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of service personnel."
The capture of Avdiivka was Russia's largest territorial advance since capturing Bakhmut in May 2023, and was considered a sign that Russian forces had retaken the initiative in the war after the failure of the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive. The battle for Avdiivka came to be known as the "second Bakhmut", or "Bakhmut 2.0", due to the similarities in battlefield conditions, Russian tactics, and reported casualty rates. It has been noted that Russian forces may have lost more soldiers during the battle, according to Ukrainian estimates and pro-Russian bloggers, than during the entirety of the Soviet–Afghan War, though casualty figures for both sides remain impossible to verify.
Background
Avdiivka is an industrial city in central Donetsk Oblast and located northwest of Donetsk city, the region's principal city. Avdiivka is home to the Avdiivka Coke Plant, the largest coke producer in Ukraine, and widely known as "Koksokhim". The city had a pre-war population of about 32,000 people.
Avdiivka had been located along the front lines of the Russo-Ukrainian War since 2014, being a heavily fortified frontline settlement, replete with trench systems, firing positions, and concrete-reinforced bunkers. The city's southern and eastern flanks became minefields, and the front-line industrial district saw fierce fighting for years. In the 2017 Battle of Avdiivka, Ukrainian forces maintained control of the city against pro-Russian separatists of the Donetsk People's Republic.
Early conflict
Early fighting and bombardment (February – May 2022)
Attacks on the Ukrainian garrison in Avdiivka intensified during the week before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with small groups of separatist militants attempting to enter Ukrainian-controlled territory. A Ukrainian army outpost was bombarded with mortar shells on 21 February 2022, and artillery fires were heard on the morning of 23 February.
On 13 March, Metinvest reported that shells had struck the Avdiivka Coke Plant, damaging some facilities. The plant had suspended operations at the onset of the Russian invasion, and there were no injuries. The Russian Ministry of Defence accused "retreating militants of nationalist battalions" of sabotaging the plant and causing a fire that could not be extinguished due to ongoing fighting.
The National Police of Ukraine said on 22 March that Russia used a Tornado-S MLRS system to bombard Avdiivka, allegedly causing civilian casualties. On 26 March, Governor of Donetsk Oblast Pavlo Kyrylenko reported that the city's industrial zone had been attacked with white phosphorus munitions.
Amid the beginning of a Russian offensive in the Donbas in mid-April, the bombardment of Avdiivka reportedly intensified. A supermarket and an athletics store were destroyed by airstrikes in the city center. An estimated 6,000 of the city's c. 30,000 pre-war residents remained in the city, with as many as 2,000 of them taking up permanent residence in underground bomb shelters. On 18 April, Russia said its forces had destroyed two command posts and a radar system for S-300 missiles in Avdiivka. On the same day, Ukrainian officials claimed to have repelled a Russian ground offensive against the city.
Phosphorus shells were reportedly used to bombard the coke plant on 26 April, as well as the city center the next day, causing several fires. A high-rise building was also hit with an airstrike. On 29 April, videos of the Russian army shelling Ukrainian forces in Avdiivka with a thermobaric weapon were published.
In early May, at least 10 people were killed and 15 were wounded by Russian shelling on the coke plant. School No. 1 in Avdiivka, which had 200 pupils before the war, was completely destroyed by Russian bombardment reportedly with phosphorus munitions on 18 May. A week later, School No. 2 was also destroyed by Russian shelling.
Northeastern separatist advance (June – July 2022)
On 1 June, the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) militia claimed to have captured the village of Novoselivka Druha, 10 km northeast of Avdiivka, as well as portions of a nearby highway, which it described as one of two supply routes for the Ukrainian garrison in Avdiivka. Five days later, the militia published footage from former Ukrainian military positions near Kamianka it had recently captured.
A large plume of smoke was seen over Avdiivka on 12 June, leading to speculation that the coke plant had been shelled by Russian forces once again. In the early hours of 21 June, School No. 6 was destroyed by BM-21 Grad rocket fire, becoming the third school destroyed in the city after Schools No. 1 and 2. On 23 June, Avdiivka came under Russian fire again.
By 4 July, Russian forces had occupied dominant heights near Novoselivka Druha and were using these positions to exert fire control over the city. Avdiivka was shelled more than 10 times between 6–7 July; the bombardment largely targeted civilian infrastructure including a hospital, residential buildings, a bus depot, and the coke plant.
On 18 July, Eduard Basurin, a spokesman for the DPR militia, claimed that the road connecting Avdiivka with Kostyantynivka had been blocked off at two locations, therefore Avdiivka was now "half-surrounded". On the same day, the Ukrainian General Staff reported combat near the villages of Kamianka and Verkhnotoretske, both located northeast of Avdiivka. Igor Girkin, who is a pro-war Russian nationalist but a regular critic of Russia's war effort in Ukraine, said at the time that the degraded DPR forces in the Avdiivka area were unlikely to make significant gains due to the threat of heavy Ukrainian artillery fire.
Renewed assaults and capture of Pisky (28 July 2022 – March 2023)
On 28 July, DPR and Russian forces launched an offensive to surround Avdiivka. Russian and separatist forces assaulted the towns of Krasnohorivka, Pisky, and other towns north of Avdiivka. On 31 July, the Head of the Avdiivka City Military Administration, Vitalii Barabash (effectively the mayor), said that only 10% of the pre-war population of Avdiivka remained, or about 2,500 people.
Ukraine said on 5 August that it lost the Butivka coal mine to Russia. On 7 August, combat footage showed that Russian forces had reached the centre of Pisky; they fully captured the entirety of Pisky by 24 August. In early September, several separatist units, including the Sparta Battalion and Somalia Battalion, launched an attack in the wider Avdiivka area, most importantly near Pisky. The Wall Street Journal reported that Ukrainian forces "remain[ed] on the defensive" in Avdiivka by late September. On 10 October, Ukraine said Russia was continuing its offensive in Avdiivka and was trying to encircle the city. In mid-January 2023, Russian and DPR forces made an attempt to capture the village of Vodiane, which was described by a British military blogger as "calamitous".
Combat southwest of the city (March – September 2023)
In March 2023, a spokesman for Ukraine's Tavria military command warned that Avdiivka could become a "second Bakhmut" amid a report from British Defence Intelligence that Russian forces had made "creeping gains" around the city. By March, 1,700 civilians remained in Avdiivka.
In April, Ukrainian military officials reported that a Russian tank brigade had been deployed near Avdiivka following several days of clashes in the area. In mid-May, Russian forces continued to accumulate forces and reinforce their position in Pisky. A series of mechanized assaults towards Nevelske and Pervomaiske were reportedly defeated due to the Ukrainian military's terrain advantage in the area. A reported eight Russian armored vehicles and up to 40 Russian troops were lost over several days of combat.
Fierce combat and artillery shelling continued on the Avdiivka front in June 2023. On 10 September, Russian and Ukrainian sources reported combat in Avdiivka, Vodiane, Krasnohorivka, and Keramik. Amid Russian pressure north of Avdiivka, Ukrainian forces reportedly gained a foothold in the village of Opytne south of city.
Battle
Initial mechanized assaults (10 October – 12 November 2023)
Starting on 10 October, Russian forces attacked the north, west and south of Avdiivka with armoured assault groups and helicopters, supported by artillery. Three motor rifle brigades of the Russian 8th Combined Arms Army began a concerted offensive action along Avdiivka's flanks, particularly southwest near Sieverne and northwest near Krasnohorivka and the village of Stepove, near the Avdiivka Coke Plant. Reportedly, all observed Russian units involved in the renewed offensive at the time were members of the Donetsk people's militias, which the 8th CAA absorbed at the start of the invasion.
On 11 October, Ukraine's General Staff reported that Russia initiated 18 combat engagements against the city during the previous 24 hours and that Russian forces launched one missile strike and 36 air strikes, while the Ukrainian air force launched 12 strikes.
According to Forbes, the Russians had concentrated a total of a half–dozen motor rifle brigade and regiments and brigade for the assault. The Ukrainians claimed that 34 Russian tanks were destroyed in 20 hours, with at least one Ukrainian milblogger, cited in the Forbes article, claiming that Russian forces lost "an entire regiment", with 91 other armored vehicles destroyed. Personnel losses were claimed to be "820 200s", with "a minimum of another 2400 injured… And Medevac, they have a full hat, so a significant number of their three hundred is probably already two hundred."
Andrii Kovaliov, a spokesman for the Ukrainian General Staff, reported separately in an interview with Radio Svoboda that Ukrainian forces had prior knowledge of this attempted assault and were prepared beforehand. On 12 October, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), an American think tank and war observer, assessed that Russian forces "have not secured any major breakthrough" and were unlikely to cut off Ukrainian forces due to heavy losses, equivalent to a battalion tactical group in armoured vehicles.
On 15 October, Ukrainian forces were conducting counterattacks on the southern flanks near Pervomaiske (11 km southwest of Avdiivka) and Sieverne (6 km west of Avdiivka) with mixed results. Russian forces maintained days-long assaults across the front, only showing signs of letting up by 16 October when Avdiivka mayor Vitalii Barabash reported that Russian forces only attempted to storm the city 15 times, compared to the 60 time average during the middle of the week. Andriy Serhan, the commander of the 59th Motorized Brigade's drone platoon, said that the Russian assault had failed, but that the Russians were regrouping for another attempt. Ukrainian sources reported that Russian positions were reinforced with three units based on the DPR militias, the 114th, 15th, and 21st Motor Rifle Brigades while the 30th Motor Rifle Brigade was being kept in reserve.
On 18 October, the 21st Motor Rifle Brigade advanced towards the "slag heap", an elevated mound of dumped coke slack (formed from the adjacent Avdiivka Coke Plant) overlooking Avdiikva from the north, capturing some forward positions. The Ukrainians claimed to have destroyed 97 Russian tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and armoured personnel carriers while another Ukrainian source claimed that 620 Russian soldiers and 34 units of military equipment were lost on the 18th. Some Ukrainian soldiers compared the intensity of the assault that day to the Battle of Kursk, and referred to the battle as "hell".
On 19 October, the DPR's "Kluny" Sabotage, Assault and Reconnaissance group made gains north of Spartak and also attempted a frontal assault on Avdiivka with the 1st Motor Rifle Brigade attacking the fortified restaurant, the "Tsarska Okhota" (Tsar's Hunt), located at the southernmost turn of Soborna Street on the city's southern outskirts. The 9th Motor Rifle Brigade reported to have advanced "a few hundred" meters in the Vodiane–Netailove direction. The 114th Motor Rifle Brigade and 277th Infantry Battalion attacked near Stepove village, north of Avdiivka. The 1454th Motor Rifle Regiment and the 21st Motor Rifle Brigade attacked near Kamianka. Lastly, the "Pyatnashka" and "Yugra" volunteer battalions attempted to advance to the N20 highway east of Avdiivka.