According to Gianandrea Gaiani, editor of the Italian defense magazine Analisi Difesa, writing on Feb. 18, the Russian conquest of Avdeyevka has an immense significance, which even Anglo-American media have recognized, whereas European media are playing it down.
“For the BBC, the fall of Avdeyevka marks the biggest change on the front line spanning more than 1,000 km since the capture of Artyomovsk (Bakhmut for Ukrainians) by Wagner Group contractors in May 2023. U.S. Fox News TV called the Ukrainian retreat from Avdeyevka a ‘key victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia,’ which ‘marks a turning point’ in the Ukrainian conflict before the world. ‘The success offers Russia a morale boost ahead of the second anniversary of the conflict and the Russian presidential elections.'
Instead, “In an attempt to downplay the significance of the Russian victory, Ukrainian and European media point out that it is Moscow’s first victory since the fall of Bakhmut, when in fact the Russians first repelled the Ukrainian counteroffensive between June and November, then seized the stronghold of Marynka in late December, while they had already taken the initiative by October, conquering villages and territories along almost the entire front.”
Gaiani starts his report, writing: “For the Russians it was the greatest war success achieved after repelling last year’s Ukrainian counter-offensive and after conquering Marynka, a Ukrainian stronghold south of Bakhmut. For the Ukrainians this is the latest significant defeat even if the political and military leaders try to pass off the rout of their forces as a ‘retreat to pre-established positions.’”
Avdeyevka, he goes on, “was the largest and most complex fortified complex established by Kiev’s forces since the beginning of the conflict in 2014, a fundamental stronghold for blocking Russian offensive attacks aimed at conquering the portion of the region of Donetsk still controlled by the Ukrainian armed forces but also to allow artillery to target military and civilian targets in the city of Donetsk (whose western suburbs are less than 10 km away)....”
