Russians are dropping bombs on Avdiivka every day and attacking the city from all sides. But around Bakhmut, the occupiers have almost been stopped. The situation at the front on the 400th day of the great war

In Avdiivka, Donetsk region, the situation is getting worse. Due to constant shelling by Russian aircraft, utility workers have been evacuated from the city. Journalists and volunteers have been barred from entering the city, and mobile phone service will soon be cut off. The air strikes allow Russians to advance in the east and north of Avdiivka, but the occupiers are still being held back in other areas. The Ukrainian military, thanks to reinforcements, have almost completely stopped the Russian army and the Wagner PMC around Bakhmut and are preventing them from encircling the city. The distance between the Russian units to close the ring remains unchanged, and some roads to Bakhmut are still under Ukrainian control, although they are being shelled by the occupiers' artillery. In the city, the Russians are slowly advancing towards the center from three sides at once - fighting is already taking place a few hundred meters from the city council.

Russian troops continue to take long breaks between massive missile attacks on Ukraine.

The last time 21 days passed between attacks, the occupiers launched missiles on March 9. The same amount of time has passed since then, but the Russians have not yet launched dozens of missiles simultaneously. Indirectly, this indicates both a shortage of missiles and the failure of the strategy of striking the energy system. The occupiers are looking for new tactics and targets, and attacks on oil depots have become more frequent.

Instead of missiles, Russians use Iranian Shahed-136 kamikaze drones almost every week . Ukrainian air defense shoots down almost all drones, but some drones still reach their targets.

The use of guided bombs by the Russians is becoming a problem for Ukraine.

The occupiers attach wings and GPS guidance to old bombs, which allows them to be launched from a considerable distance and hit the target. Russian planes can drop these bombs at a distance of more than 50 kilometers and avoid entering the Ukrainian air defense zone. Recently, Sumy region has suffered the most from such bombs - the occupiers have been dropping dozens of such bombs on the region's settlements. The Air Force emphasizes that the most effective way to counter these bombs is to shoot down the bombers, and for this purpose Ukraine needs long-range air defense systems.

On the evening of March 20, according to the Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate, Kalibr cruise missiles were destroyed at a railway station in occupied Dzhankoy. But Ukraine did not officially claim responsibility for the attack. The railway station in Dzhankoy is one of the key logistics centers for the Russians. There are two branches from mainland Ukraine that go there. To transport anything by rail across the Kerch Bridge to Sevastopol, Russians still need to go through Dzhankoy. If Ukrainian troops control this station, it will greatly complicate Russian logistics in Crimea and southern Ukraine.

On March 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly announced that Russia would deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty prohibits the transfer of nuclear weapons to non-nuclear weapon states. Putin has used the same principle as the United States in deploying its nuclear weapons in Europe. This means that the nuclear weapons will be deployed on a Russian military base, and therefore de jure they will remain Russian. It will also be maintained by the Russian military.

The nuclear threat from this decision of Putin's will not increase, because in the event of a launch, it does not matter who pushed the button first. Technically, the time it takes for nuclear missiles to reach NATO territory will be reduced by only a few minutes, because Russia already shares a common border with NATO member states. But what Putin really violated was his agreement with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who had visited Moscow just a few days before Putin's statement. Clause VII of the joint statement by China and Russia states that all nuclear powers should only deploy nuclear weapons on their territory and should return them from abroad. In this way, China and Russia criticized the United States because it was the only state that had nuclear weapons abroad. Now Russia has become such a state.

In Kharkiv region, the front line remains unchanged.

Russians continue to control a small area in the northeast, near the Russian-Ukrainian border. The occupiers are trying to advance toward Kupiansk and along the Oskil River to push the Ukrainian army back beyond it. They are attacking near the villages of Hrianykivka and Masiutivka, but without success.

In the Luhansk region, Russians are also advancing every day, but without success.

They are advancing hundreds of meters in some areas. The occupiers are trying to advance on the villages of Nevske and Makiivka in Luhansk region, and Terny and Yampolivka in Donetsk region. Fighting also continues near the village of Dibrova and in the forests south of the city of Kreminna. The main goal of the Russians is to push Ukrainian troops away from the towns of Kreminna and Svatove, as well as from the highway between them.

On the southern bank of the Siverskyi Donets River, the administrative border of Luhansk and Donetsk regions, Russians are trying to advance on the village of Bilohorivka and the villages of Verkhnekamianske and Spirne. These points cover the flank of the Ukrainian military, who are holding back the Russians behind Soledar and preventing them from reaching Siversk quickly and simultaneously from several sides. The occupiers will pay less attention to this direction until they capture Bakhmut.

Over the past 10 days, the situation around Bakhmut has hardly changed.

The Russians have been unable to surround the city or advance in the area of the surrounding villages. The Ukrainian military is holding the roads to Bakhmut to supply the city's defenders.

But in Bakhmut itself, the occupiers continue to advance extremely slowly towards the center from the north, south and east. Fierce fighting continues for every street and building. In one of the latest videos, the Russians have already been geolocated in the area of Bakhmut's central market, which is just over 400 meters from the city council.

Meanwhile, the situation around Avdiivka is deteriorating - the occupiers are advancing from the north and east, while bombarding the city daily.

The situation inside Avdiivka has become so dangerous that the authorities have already started evacuating all public utilities . The city has no electricity, heat, water, communications or internet, and about two thousand locals who still remain there are urged to leave. Avdiivka is suffering so much because of Russian airstrikes. It seems that Ukraine has some problems with air defense in the area, and so the occupiers are dropping bombs on Avdiivka almost with impunity every day.

However, the Russians do not want to storm the city head-on and are trying to surround it. To the north of the city, the occupiers have come almost close to the railroad from the Avdiivka Coke Plant. This means that it is impossible to bring anything to the city by rail. The Russians are also advancing heavily along all the eastern outskirts of Avdiivka. However, to the south and west of the city, the Ukrainian military are holding their positions and preventing the occupiers from advancing.

Fighting also continues for the town of Marinka. It has been on the front line since 2014, and after more than a year of full-scale invasion, the Russians have not been able to capture it.

Instead, in the area of Vuhledar, the occupiers seem to have stopped serious attacks. In recent days, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has no longer mentioned that Russia is conducting an offensive in the Shakhtarsk sector, which is where Vuhledar is located. However, since the beginning of February, the Russians have continued to attack at the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Marinka directions.

In Zaporizhzhia region, the front line is not changing. Neither Russia nor Ukraine is attempting a large-scale attack in this area, but they continue to exchange fire.

At the end of 2022, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it had made progress in negotiations to establish a demilitarized zone around the Zaporizhzhia NPP. However, on March 22, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said that the discussions had reached a deadlock and the Agency was no longer considering such a possibility. In Russia, such statements by Grossi were satisfactory. Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the head of Rosenergoatom, said that the topic of demilitarization was "imposed" on Russia to weaken its position. Against the backdrop of these statements, Grossi went to visit the occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP again.

In Kherson region, the front line is not changing either - it has stabilized along the Dnipro River.

Mutual fire across the river continues there. Most likely, the front line along the Dnipro will remain unchanged until the occupied territory of Zaporizhzhia region is liberated.

On March 23, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that Russian troops had completely left the town of Nova Kakhovka. This information was immediately interpreted as the Russians' withdrawal from the city. However, there were no prerequisites that would force them to retreat. A few hours later, the General Staff denied its statements, and the Operational Command "South" explained that the occupiers had conducted a massive rotation.

Over the past 10 days, armored vehicles promised by our Western partners in January and February have begun to arrive in Ukraine on a large scale.

These are Challenger 2 tanks from the UK, and Leopard tanks. from Germany, Norway, Portugal, and other countries, as well as Marder infantry fighting vehicles from Germany, Stryker armored personnel carriers from the United States, and more. The video of Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov with the new equipment shows that the armored vehicles are being transferred mainly to the Air Assault Forces, which means that Western equipment will be key to the future Ukrainian counteroffensive.

The United States also decided to hurry up with the deliveries and announced that it would be able to transfer its Abrams tanks to Ukraine faster . Instead of waiting for them to be manufactured, the United States will send an older version of the Abrams, the M1A1. But these tanks can be taken from the US army and sent to Ukraine more quickly.

In addition, the Ukrainian military completed training on Patriot air defense systems in the United States ahead of schedule.

They have also completed training on the French-Italian SAMP-T system. This means that these modern air defense systems may arrive in Ukraine in the near future.

Western partners are also providing Ukraine with various engineering vehicles: pontoon crossings, demining tanks, and others. Such equipment is needed primarily for offense, not defense.

The availability of ammunition will also be an important element of Ukraine's future counteroffensive. Most recent US military aid packages have consisted almost entirely of ammunition and missiles. And on March 20, the European Union agreed on a plan to provide Ukraine with one million rounds of 155mm ammunition by the end of the year.

Source: babel.ua, deepstatemap.live

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