The Battle and Fall of Avdiivka
Avdiivka had spent a decade on the front line before Russia captured it. The city immediately northwest of occupied Donetsk survived years of shelling, then became the place where Ukraine's ammunition shortage and Russia's renewed offensive power converged.
Russia began its largest assault on Avdiivka in October 2023. Four months later, Ukrainian troops withdrew through a narrowing corridor from a city reduced to industrial ruins and broken apartment blocks.
Roughly 32,000 people had lived there before Russia's wider invasion, but only hundreds remained by the final battle. Police and volunteers continued evacuations while repeated strikes made movement, food delivery, and medical care increasingly dangerous.
A Ten-Year Salient
Fighting around Avdiivka began in 2014 because the city overlooked approaches to Donetsk and sat close to roads and rail lines. Ukraine developed a strong defensive area around the city, its coke plant, quarries, and surrounding villages.
By 2023, the position projected into Russian-held territory on three sides. That made it useful for Ukraine but exposed its supply routes and flanks if Russian forces could advance north and south.
The October attack opened with armoured columns, infantry, artillery, and aircraft. Russian forces lost many vehicles in minefields and exposed approaches, yet continued sending fresh units and shifted toward smaller infantry assaults.
Pressure From Every Direction
Russian troops advanced near Stepove to the north and through the industrial zone to the south. They also used tunnels and covered approaches to enter positions that frontal attacks had failed to take.
Glide bombs became especially destructive. Russian aircraft could release large bombs from beyond the reach of many Ukrainian air defences, demolishing fortified buildings that had withstood artillery.
Ukraine inflicted heavy losses but faced a growing imbalance in shells and personnel. A months-long delay in additional U.S. military funding made artillery rationing worse during the decisive phase, though ammunition was only one element of the problem.
By early February 2024, Russian troops had entered northern districts and threatened the final paved supply route. Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade reinforced the defence, but its arrival could not restore a front already splitting into isolated positions.
The Withdrawal
On February 17, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi announced that Ukrainian forces were leaving Avdiivka to avoid encirclement. Units withdrew west under fire, abandoning some damaged equipment and positions that could no longer be supplied.
The order saved much of the garrison, but not everyone escaped cleanly. Ukraine acknowledged that some soldiers were captured or missing, while accounts from troops described confusion in parts of the withdrawal.
Some positions received the withdrawal order only after Russian troops had cut or were firing on their routes. That delay turned an organised retreat at army level into a series of desperate local escapes.
Russia took the coke plant and raised flags across the city. It was Moscow's most important territorial gain since Bakhmut nine months earlier and gave the Kremlin a victory shortly before Russia's presidential election.
What the Capture Changed
Avdiivka's fall removed a long-standing Ukrainian position close to Donetsk and allowed Russia to straighten its front. Russian forces then continued west through smaller villages, beginning the long pressure toward Pokrovsk.
It did not cause an immediate collapse of Ukraine's eastern defences. As later CSIS analysis showed, Russia's advances after Avdiivka remained slow despite sustained infantry, artillery, drone, and glide-bomb attacks.
The battle nevertheless marked a change in initiative. Ukraine had spent much of 2023 preparing to advance; by early 2024 it was building new lines under pressure while waiting for shells, air-defence missiles, and replacements.
Avdiivka was therefore more than another destroyed Donbas city. It showed how Russia could turn greater manpower and firepower into incremental gains—and how dangerous even a planned Ukrainian withdrawal became once the roads behind a salient were almost closed.
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