With the flow of desperately needed weapons from the United States in doubt, Ukrainian soldiers spread along hundreds of miles of frozen trenches on the front lines are struggling to keep a deadlock from shifting in Russia’s favor.
In recent weeks, Russia has firmly seized the initiative across eastern Ukraine, where the Kremlin has dispatched tens of thousands of new soldiers to replace fallen fighters — hoping to use sheer numbers to overwhelm exhausted and outgunned Ukrainian forces.
Now, Ukrainian commanders are being forced to make hard choices about where to concentrate their limited resources.
The devastation of largely abandoned and obliterated frontline communities from Kupiansk, near the Russian border, to Marinka, some 200 miles to the south, is a testament to the toll wrought by unceasing artillery barrages, tank battles, bombardments and firefights that have rarely relented since Russia’s full scale invasion began nearly two years ago.
While some of the tactics have changed over the course of the war — both sides’ increased use of small drones laden with explosives have turned nearly every movement in open space along the front an act of daring — the Ukrainian military said Russia continues to mount infantry-led assaults of varying intensity along the entire eastern front.
None of the ruined places where battles are raging is the key to victory, but each represents a door Russian forces want to force open, allowing them to advance their scorched-earth campaign.
Some of the bloodiest battles of the war have been concentrated around Avdiivka, a city that has been reduced to rubble as Russian forces seek to encircle the longtime Ukrainian stronghold.
Since Russia launched offensive operations there in early October, they have gained a total of about seven miles in all directions around the city, according to George Barros, a researcher at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research institute.
In late November, Britain’s military intelligence agency said Russia was likely experiencing the highest casualty rates of the war so far and the battle for Avdiivka was likely the reason.
But the price for the Ukrainians is also high. On a recent visit to combat medics working in the area, it was clear that they have to tend to so many wounded soldiers that they run out of pain medication on some days.
And Russia shows no signs of giving up, according to Ukrainian military officials.
Maksym Morozov, an officer of the Legion of Freedom, a Ukrainian paramilitary group, said on national television this week that he had witnessed Russian soldiers being sent to the front “without assault rifles, bulletproof vests and helmets.”
“The situation in Avdiivka,” he said, “is difficult and critical.”
