Siege of Avdiivka – WATCH: Russian Tank Forces Kiev’s Troops to Retreat – Female Ukrainian Soldier Terrified in the Trenches – Moscow Now Also Blasting Cluster Munitions

When the Siege of Avdiivka started, I wrote that, according to what we learned about the similar sieges of Mariupol and Bakhmut, we could expect three things:

First of all – advances will probably be slow.

The second important lesson from past sieges in this war has to do with the coverage by the MSM.

Ukrainians always win – in the MSM headlines.

All the time, it is stressed in their how horribly failing the Russians are, how they don’t have a chance, while papers sing praises for the impenetrable Ukrainian defenses.

Meanwhile, the Russians will be losing the war in the headlines but winning in the ground, until they finally take the city.

The 3rd feature is: when Russians do, a key defensive bastion like Avdiivka will be rebranded as a minor non-strategic place.

But if we dig a bit, it’s easy to find good information.

For example, Ukrainian soldiers now say that they fear losing a ‘war of exhaustion’ [attrition] against Russia ‘as Kyiv struggles to replenish its battle-weary forces’.

Telegraph reported:

“Units on the front lines are commonly 20 to 40 per cent below strength as Ukraine counts the costs of its summer counter-offensive, a retired Ukrainian lieutenant general told [the media].”

It was hoped that the ‘Nato-trained brigades equipped with Western tanks’ would liberate vast amount of territory occupied by Russia as part of the much-hyped counteroffensive.

But in reality, Ukrainian troops ‘battered and bruised’ Russian forces, but the heavily fortified front lines barely moved in months of brutal fighting.

“[Private] Bohdan Lysenko, of Ukraine’s 47th Brigade: ‘We don’t have a chance playing

Source: The Gateway Pundit