Kremlin soldiers raise the flag
Russians capture important bunker fortress near Avdiivka
February 15, 2024, 10:11 p.m
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Putin’s troops continue to advance around Avdiivka. A drone video now shows Moscow’s soldiers in the Ukrainian defense position “Zenit”. According to an expert, the city is untenable without this fortress.
Russian troops have apparently captured a strategically important Ukrainian position near the embattled city of Avdiivka. A drone video published by Russian military bloggers shows Kremlin soldiers hoisting the Russian flag in the middle of the “Zenit” fortress. Pro-Ukrainian bloggers reported an orderly withdrawal of the defenders. The Ukrainian military has not yet officially commented.
The code name “Zenit” stands for a massively expanded bunker system that previously covered the south of Avdiivka. The Soviet military built the nuclear bomb-proof Complex at that time to accommodate air defense units that were supposed to protect a nearby, but no longer existing, air force base. Ukrainian troops moved into the bunker in 2014, shortly after the Russian invasion of Donbass. The old Minsk Agreement contact line runs just a few hundred meters away.
From “Zenit” it is about five kilometers to Avdiivka on the road T-05-05. The hilltop position is “vital to defending the city and keeping the roads to the city open,” map expert Andrew Perpetua told Forbes last month. “I can’t imagine how you can defend yourself without them.” In the past few days, the Kremlin’s troops had advanced east and west of “Zenit”. This threatened the garrison with encirclement.
The new Ukrainian commander-in-chief Olexander Syrskyj recently spoke of an extremely difficult situation around Avdiivka, because Russian troops are also advancing from the north and threatening the supply routes. As reinforcement, Kiev has sent the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, one of the army’s most powerful units, to Adviyivka. According to its commander Denis Kapustin, the Russian Volunteer Corps has also been helping to defend the city since this morning.