Exchange of blows in north and south as US reiterates support for Ukraine
Ukrainian and Russian troops have exchanged attacks on the eastern and southern fronts, where the Ukrainians are advancing, without either side managing to consolidate their advances, while the US Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin, has expressed Washington's support for the Ukrainian cause in Kiev.
Avdivka, a small town northeast of Donetsk, the capital of the eastern region of the same name, has become the immediate target of Russian troops, who have been trying to encircle it since early October but have so far been unsuccessful.
A bastion of resistance
Ukrainian forces have turned the urban centre of Avdivka into a bastion of resistance and are even launching counter-attacks, according to Russian military bloggers quoted by the US think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
According to the Russian opposition in exile, Moscow needs the capture of Avdivka like air, as the Russian army has failed to win a significant victory since the capture of Bakhmut in May.
In the run-up to the March 2024 presidential elections, in which, barring a major surprise, the current head of state, Vladimir Putin, will stand for re-election, the Kremlin needs to showcase some achievement on the battlefield.
Ukraine puts the boot south of the Dnieper
While on the eastern front the efforts of Russian troops are meeting fierce resistance from Kiev forces, in the south of the Kherson region, on the left bank of the Dnieper River, Ukrainian troops are increasingly making their presence felt.
"There is already progress. Preliminary figures vary between 3 and 8 kilometres, depending on the characteristics of the geography and landscape of the left bank," said Natalia Humenyuk, spokeswoman for the Southern Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on Sunday.
According to Ukrainian military expert Romás Svitán, these advances are still insufficient to establish an operational bridgehead on the southern bank of the Dnieper, from where the isthmus of the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, originates.
"We are halfway there. The operational bridgehead must be at least 15 kilometres long in order to be able to build engineering structures, if it is decided to move heavy equipment to the left bank," Svitan, a reserve colonel, was quoted as saying by the official Ukrainian news agency UNIAN.
He added that this would require pontoons to be laid and landing stages to be set up to receive barges.
Austin reaffirms US support for Ukraine in Kiev
Against this backdrop on the front lines, the US defence secretary arrived in Kiev on Monday accompanied by the head of the US European Command, Christopher Cavoli.
"I am here today to deliver an important message: the United States will continue to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom from Russian aggression, both now and in the future," Austin wrote on social networking site X upon his arrival in the Ukrainian capital, where he met with President Volodymir Zelensky.
His visit to Kiev comes amid uncertainty over continued US assistance to Ukraine due to opposition from part of the Republican Party and the position of former president and potential Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who advocates negotiating and seeking an agreement with Russia.
According to the Pentagon, the talks with the Ukrainian side are aimed at "strengthening the strategic partnership between the United States and Ukraine to ensure that its armed forces have the combat capabilities they need both to face the winter and to defend the country against future Russian threats".
The approach of winter is already being felt in Ukraine, where rain and snow make ground advances difficult, at least until temperatures drop to several degrees below zero and harden the ground to support the weight of military vehicles.
With the change of season, the Ukrainian authorities have redoubled their requests for air defence systems in anticipation of Russia intensifying its missile and drone attacks on the country's energy infrastructure.