Russia pounds Avdiivka as Ukraine claims strikes on Black Sea warships

Moscow’s military continued to launch intense air and ground assaults on the town of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine, as Kyiv said its navy and security service had used innovative marine drones to hit two Russian warships off occupied Crimea in the Black Sea.

“For a fourth day, the situation is not easy. It is very ‘hot’ in our area,” said Vitaliy Barabash, the head of the administration in Avdiivka, an industrial town 650km east of Kyiv and on the outskirts of the Russian-held city of Donetsk.

“The enemy is putting pressure on us with armour, infantry and aviation. And this is all with the support of artillery strikes. The situation is complicated by the fact that they are doing it from several directions and there are many of them. They have no problems with ammunition, equipment or personnel,” he told Ukrainian television on Friday.

Referring to Russia’s biggest offensive in several months, Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said “our army is now holding positions in difficult battles” near Avdiivka.

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He said Moscow “threw a lot of forces into this area” and was relying on overwhelming numbers to win the battle. “Our strength is in quality and unity. And in the cold calculation of what we need to destroy the Russians. We continue to fight for the future of the nation every day. Everyone together.”

Russia’s military says it has “improved its positions” around Avdiivka in recent days, in what analysts say appears to be a bid to encircle the town and force Ukraine to commit troops to its defence, rather than to offensive operations near the occupied city of Bakhmut, 70km to the north, or in Zaporizhzhia region to the south.

After photographs were published on Friday apparently showing smoke pouring from a damaged Russian warship, sources in Kyiv’s SBU security service said it had hit two Russian military vessels with “Sea Baby” marine drones in joint operations with the Ukrainian navy.

An unnamed SBU source told Ukrainian media that the Pavel Derzhavin patrol ship had been struck on Wednesday and a Buyan-class corvette on Friday. Both attacks allegedly took place near Sevastopol, the main port of occupied Crimea.

“The SBU warns the Russians that they should not sail in Ukrainian waters if they want to preserve at least some remnants of their fleet,” the source said, following other recent missile and drone attacks on Russian warships in Crimea and the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. Moscow did not comment on Kyiv’s latest claims.

Ukraine said at least one person was killed and 13 injured in a Russian missile strike on the eastern town of Pokrovsk, and one woman died and her husband was hurt when a drone dropped explosives on to their car in the southeastern town of Beryslav.

Britain announced that it would deploy 20,000 more troops in northern Europe next year amid growing security concerns in the region. Finland and Estonia are now investigating the cause of recent damage to a Baltic Sea gas pipeline and communications cable.