Experienced Wagner fighters sent to storm Avdiyivka to support DPR militants – ISW

The Russian military leadership could involve in the assault on Avdiyivka, those fighters of the Wagner private military company who have military experience.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) concluded.

The researchers refer to the obituaries of the Wagner fighters who recently died near Avdiyivka and, in the past, had war experience in other hot spots.

Analysts believe the Russian military leadership probably decided to deploy some aspects of the Wagner in the Avdiyivka area in recent weeks to support the depleted and inferior forces of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic. This, they believe, can help achieve some strategic success there.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, the occupiers forbid the civilian population to move freely between settlements in the Horli district of the Donetsk Region and the Kakhovka District of the Kherson Region.

On the Avdiyivka and Mariyinka directions, the enemy carried out unsuccessful offensive actions in the direction of the settlements of Novobakhmutivka, Novokalynove, Avdiyivka, Sieverne, Pervomaiske, Nevelske, Krasnohorivka, and Mariyinka.

Russia used "tear gas" grenades against the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) military in the Mariyinka area and three other settlements.