Putin cannot afford disgrace of withdrawing from Avdiivka - serviceman Tymochko

He said this on the Espreso TV channel.

"There is an order from Putin to take Avdiivka by the new year. The announced plan of a blitzkrieg operation to take Avdiivka a month and a half ago has already failed. Putin visited the southern headquarters twice. He set a task and told those in charge of the directions that if they do not take Avdiivka, they will pay not only with their shoulder straps, but also with their property, health and lives. That is why they will be trying to take Avdiivka," explained Tymochko. 

According to the serviceman, Avdiivka is on Putin's general order to take a city by December.

"Putin cannot afford such a disgrace as simply withdrawing or simply stopping the offensive near Avdiivka, which he announced to the whole world. Putin was trying to use the capture of Avdiivka as a playing card in the geopolitical arena. All this will lead to the fact that our soldiers will have to fight hard and for a long time. This is the nature of Russians - to gnaw, gnaw and not to count their losses. Avdiivka now, like Bakhmut before, is fulfilling an important mission of destroying Russia's reserves and deterring its army," emphasized Tymochko.

• Over the past day, Russian invaders conducted assault operations at the Kupyansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Marinka, Shakhtarsk and Zaporizhzhia directions, but they did not succeed. The defense forces killed 850 Russian soldiers.
• Over the course of the week, many positional battles took place along the entire frontline from Luhansk to Kherson, with no significant changes in the contact line.