ISW: Russian troops slow down their offensive after capturing Avdiivka

This is stated in the report of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

According to a statement by Dmytro Lykhoviy, spokesman for the Tavria Group of Forces, the number of Russian attacks in the Avdiivka sector has significantly decreased over the past day. Russian shelling and aviation activity in the area also significantly decreased. He noted that the occupation troops are currently regrouping and clearing the city.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces have withdrawn to a new line of defense, which the Armed Forces prepared in advance and fortified on "several levels."

The report notes that Russian forces will likely have to conduct an operational pause before resuming significant offensive operations in the Avdiivka direction or will have to transfer additional reinforcements from other sectors of the front to the area to prevent operations near Avdiivka from culminating.

"Russian forces have reserves available for such reinforcement in other sectors, but ISW has observed no indication that the Russian command is moving those reserves toward Avdiivka," the experts emphasize.

At the same time, Lykhoviy and Ukrainian Khortytsia Group of Forces Spokesperson Captain Ilya Yevlash, on the contrary, stated that the Russian command will likely transfer Russian forces accumulated around Avdiivka to other, unspecified areas of the frontline in the near future.

According to Yevlash, it will probably take at least a week for Russian forces to move units from Avdiivka to fight in unspecified areas of the front.

"ISW has not yet observed any indications of how Russian forces will choose to allocate their manpower currently deployed to the Avdiivka area," the report says.

• On February 17, the Ukrainian Defense Forces command decided to withdraw from Avdiivka and move to more favorable positions in order to avoid encirclement and save the lives of the military.
• Ukraine's Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that the decision to withdraw from Avdiivka was the right one and that Ukrainian soldiers currently need some weapons and equipment.
• Later, Dmytro Lykhoviy, a spokesman for the Tavriisk Group of Forces, said that fighting continued west of Avdiivka and commented on the situation in the Zaporizhzhia sector.