Failing to complete Bakhmut campaign, Russian troops want to constrain Ukrainian army with battles for Avdiivka - military expert Kyrychevskyi

He expressed this opinion on Espreso TV.

"With superhuman and organizational efforts, Ukrainian troops stabilized Bakhmut's defense. The Ukrainian Armed Forces were able to move to proactive actions using mechanized units to at least stop the enemy's advance and create conditions to push them back. There is already publicly available footage of our mechanized units using American M113 armored personnel carriers, which are the lightest vehicles that the soil can withstand. And if such vehicles are used for counterattacks against the Russians, it shows that Ukraine's troops feel more stable and reliable than they did a week ago," the expert said.

Ivan Kyrychevskyi added that despite the enemy's efforts in the Bakhmut direction, Ukraine's logistics communications are maintained, as we need to supply ammunition not only for infantry but also for armored personnel carriers.

"Describing the situation in Bakhmut, we cannot but mention Avdiivka. The situation looks like the Russian enemy, failing to complete the campaign for one city, wants to try to constrain us with battles for another important city, Avdiivka. Unfortunately, the Russians know how to collect large amounts of data, but fortunately, they do not treat it professionally. They set tasks, but do not assess their own capabilities. The enemy was able to maintain a proper level of firepower and effort near Bakhmut because it had brought all available large-caliber artillery, Tyulpan self-propelled mortars, and 203 mm self-propelled guns of the 2C7 type, known as the Peon, to the area. The mobilization reserve and the Wagner troops were an appendage. The Russian army is shifting its efforts to Avdiivka, they are thinking of stretching our communications and want to chain our troops. But in order to destroy the existing facilities in Avdiivka, the Russian troops were forced to rely on the use of planning bombs from tactical aircraft," commented the military expert.

Ivan noted that Avdiivka is mostly destroyed, but there is still a large industrial facility that can be used for defense - a local coke plant.

"The Russian army has started withdrawing some units even from Bakhmut. By stretching their resources, they could suffer a near-catastrophic failure and create the preconditions for us to launch a counteroffensive there as well, pushing the Russian enemy away from these two important cities. When it comes to the point where the Ukrainian Defense Forces impose a confrontation on the enemy, the latter begins to lose ground. And the Ukrainian Armed Forces have space to use asymmetric methods of defense, which significantly accelerate the number of enemy manpower losses," Kyrychevskyi summarized.

• On March 21, ISW analysts noted that the Russians are stepping up their efforts to achieve at least some success before losing the initiative at the front