Ukrainian servicemen pile up earthbags to build a fortification not far from town of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on February 17, 2024. (Photo by Anatolii STEPANOV / AFP)
Novooleksandrivka, Donetsk Region, Ukraine: Russian troops launched multiple attacks to the west of recently captured Avdiivka in a bid to force more gains on the battlefield, a Ukrainian army spokesperson said Sunday.
Kyiv also announced it had opened a war crimes investigation after two separate reports of Russian troops shooting captured Ukrainian soldiers emerged.
Facing manpower and ammunition shortages, Ukraine was forced to withdraw from the industrial hub in the eastern Donetsk region, handing Moscow its first major territorial gain since May 2023.
"The enemy is trying to actively develop its offensive," Dmytro Lykhoviy, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian army commander leading Kyiv's troops in the area, said on state TV on Sunday.
Ukraine's general staff reported 14 failed Russian attacks on the village of Lastochkyne, around two kilometres (one mile) to the west of Avdiivka's northern edge.
"But our considerable forces are entrenched there," Lykhoviy said.
He also reported failed Russian attacks near the villages of Robotyne and Verbove in the southern Zaporizhzhia region -- one of the few places where Ukraine managed to regain ground during last year's counter-offensive.
He said it would be "very difficult" for Russia to break through there, given heavy Ukrainian defensive lines and natural conditions of the terrain.
"The situation in the Zaporizhzhia sector is stable... No positions have been lost," he said Sunday on state TV.
"The enemy was kicked in the teeth and retreated," he added.
