Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday that the Russian army was advancing in Ukraine “in all directions” as his troops stepped up pressure on the eastern front after a Ukrainian counteroffensive over the summer that made little progress, AFP reported.

“Our soldiers are acting competently and decisively, taking a more advantageous position and expanding control zones in all directions,” he said.

The combat capabilities of the Ukrainians were “significantly reduced” after their counteroffensive, Shoigu also claims.

The Ukrainian counteroffensive, launched this summer after months of preparation, has stalled in the south and east, with little progress and no hope of a front-line breakthrough.

Since the beginning of autumn, Russian forces have shown that they still have resources by striking, AFP notes.

Moscow soldiers relentlessly attack Avdiivka, an industrial city on the outskirts of Donetsk, which they are trying to surround.

The city, briefly captured in 2014 by pro-Russian separatists, eventually became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance.

Since then, it has become the front line in the region, and the Russians have “significantly increased” their activity in recent days, Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, the Ukrainian commander of the Avdiyivka district, noted on Wednesday.

On Friday, Tarnavskyi assured that the Ukrainians were “firmly holding their position”, still inflicting heavy losses on the Russians, who he said were attacking with armored vehicles as well as human waves.

Russia has lost significant numbers of people and assets in similar attacks over the past 21 months, including on Bakhmut and Vugledar.

Further north, Russia this week said it had captured a small town near Bakhmut, a town captured by Wagner’s paramilitary group in the spring but left the scene of a hellish battle that began in the summer of 2022.

AFP was unable to verify these claims from independent sources, but Russian forces have not announced progress in this area since the spring.

In general, the front line did not move for less than a year, when on November 11, 2022, Ukrainian soldiers liberated Kherson.

Despite the armed support of the West, the Ukrainian offensive in the summer ended in failure, despite the reliability of Russian defense lines, AFP notes.

The Russian army, despite an economy focused on the war effort, also made no further progress. However, it stopped retreating and controls almost 20% of the territory of Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities fear that if the war reaches a stalemate, Western aid may decrease, especially since calls for this have been made in several countries, including the United States, Kyiv’s main supporter. (Agerpress)