The Guardian reports:

Russian forces are believed to have suffered some of the country’s biggest casualty rates so far this year as a result of continued “heavy but inconclusive” fighting around the Donetsk oblast town of Avdiivka.

According to the UK Ministry of Defence’s intelligence update on Saturday morning, Russia has probably committed elements of up to eight brigades to the sector where it initiated a “major offensive effort” in mid-October.

Ukraine’s armed forces claimed on Saturday that Russia had lost 298,420 troops since the beginning of its full-scale invasion last year, including 740 casualties in the last day. These figures have not been independently verified.

The intelligence update states that the nature of the operation in Avdiivka indicates that Russia’s “core military-political challenge remains the same as it has throughout most of the war”.

“Political leaders demand more territory to be seized but the military cannot generate the effective operational level offensive action.”

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, claimed on Friday that Russian forces have lost at least a brigade’s worth of troops attempting to advance on Avdiivka. [Continue reading…]