Avdiivka: Only Ukraine's elite troops can stop Russia's conquest of city on the brink
It was once home to Europe's largest coke and chemical plant, a vast industrial site that has become a key battleground in the two-year war in Ukraine.
Avdiivka was briefly captured by pro-Russian forces in 2014 before the Ukrainians re-took it and installed major fortifications.
Its position on high ground, at the entrance to the Donbas, put the Russian-held city of Donetsk five miles away in easy range of Ukrainian guns.
Unsurprisingly, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Avdiivka was high on its list of targets.
Russia deployed 50,000 soldiers from its 2nd and 41st Combined Arms Armies to the Avdiivka front, surrounding the city on three sides in an ever-tightening cauldron.
The cost to the invaders has been horrendous – an estimated 13,000 Russian troops and 700 combat vehicles have been lost.
Moscow, however, was determined to press forward, pounding the exhausted Ukrainian defenders with artillery and deadly glide bombs day and night.
In October, as Republicans in the US Congress blocked further aid to Kyiv, the Ukrainians in Avdiivka began to run out of ammunition.
Just as Kyiv's forces did during the bitter fight for the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, the exhausted 110th Mechanised Brigade held on, turning to FPV drones to hit the Russians.
But the jaws of the cauldron have slowly and painfully closed and the Ukrainians' single supply route into the city has come under mortal threat.
Now Ukrainian commanders say they are withdrawing units from some areas of the city and sending in the elite 3rd Assault Brigade, veterans of the bitter fight for Bakhmut.
On Telegram messenger, the brigade said it had already conducted raids into the city and inflicted heavy casualties on the Russians.
The unit's commander, Andriy Biletsky, said the city – once home to 32,000 people – was "hell", describing the situation as "extremely critical".
"Our fighters demonstrate unprecedented heroism," he wrote. "We are forced to fight at 360 degrees against new brigades that the enemy is setting up."
The challenge for the Ukrainians is how to conduct an orderly withdrawal and keep their single supply route open.
At the time Kyiv claimed 2,500 of its soldiers were captured from the besieged Azov steel works. Two years on, as it struggles to recruit more manpower, it cannot afford the same thing to happen again.
Kyiv says it is redeploying troops to 'more advantageous positions', but their foothold in Avdiivka now seems extremely shaky.
In his nightly video address President Zelensky gave a downbeat assessment of the situation.
"We are doing everything possible to ensure that our soldiers have sufficient managerial and technological capabilities to preserve as many Ukrainian lives as possible," he said.
If Avdiivka is lost it would hand the Kremlin a double victory.
It would give Russia control of the two provinces of the Donbas, and for Vladimir Putin, provide a battlefield victory he can wave before voters as he tries – and undoubtedly succeeds – in gaining re-election next month.
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