As fighters from the Ukrainian Security Service’s “Alpha” special forces branch drove through the blackness with night-vision goggles last week, Washington Post journalists riding along saw only an occasional flash of light on the horizon — from yet more explosions in the besieged city, which is now the focus of the most pitched fighting in the war.
Avdiivka potentially poses a first critical test for Ukraine’s new commander in chief, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, who was elevated last week by President Volodymyr Zelensky and must decide if and when to admit defeat and withdraw.
Capturing Avdiivka would mark Moscow’s most significant battlefield victory since the failure of a Ukrainian counteroffensive last year — and would be the clearest sign yet that Russian forces are regaining the initiative as Kyiv runs short of soldiers, weapons, ammunition, morale and money.
Dozens of Ukrainians were taken prisoner at Azovstal, but “storming the coke plant will be very difficult and probably not make sense,” said an Alpha drone pilot in Avdiivka, whom The Post agreed to identify only by his call sign, Vitamin.
Minutes after reaching the plant, the Alpha fighters were on guard for any noises — even those of mice running across the stone floor — for fear that it could be a Russian soldier who had unexpectedly slipped inside.
The Ukrainians used to save their FPV drones for bigger targets — tanks, personnel carriers, artillery systems and so on — but now there is a green light to attack even a small group of enemy infantry.
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