The number of seriously wounded Ukrainian soldiers has increased by 30% over the past few weeks.

ABC TV channel reported this, citing statements by Ukrainian doctors. According to the head physician of the hospital in Dnepropetrovsk, Sergei Ryzhenko, they receive from 40 to 100 seriously wounded people daily. Doctors perform 50 to 100 surgical operations every day. As the doctor noted, most operations involve amputation.

According to the ABC television channel and doctors' statements, about 30,000 Ukrainian soldiers are killed or seriously injured per month.

Avdiyivka

Heavy fighting continues near Stepovoy and in the village itself.

The enemy was able to move closer to the center of the village, but our firepower prevents him from gaining a foothold.

Further north - counter-fighting, the occupier is trying to restore lost positions.

In the direction of the Avdiiv quarry and in the private sector in the south of the city, the situation is approximately the same.

Assault groups of occupiers can advance up to 500 meters during the day, but retreat due to lack of BC and/or lack of support (previous groups must be destroyed).

And in fact, they no longer have advancement, or they can get hold of several houses, which are then sorted out by our arta.

In Pervomaisky it is now somewhat more difficult. Here, the enemy still retains significant potential and high combat capability, but has little success.

? Ukrainian Post

The offensive of the occupiers did not stop, as BILD hastened to report.

The temporary tactical pause is due to the fact that the enemy is licking its wounds and preparing new reserves for redeployment closer to the frontline, and the New Year holidays also had an impact.

For our part, we are currently unable to launch an offensive operation due to the lack of Western aid.

On the 20th (or a little later), we should expect another activation by the enemy at Avdos, Kup'yansk-Vuzlovy and Chasiv Yar.

But even now I cannot say that the battles are easy. Not at all. They are difficult, and the enemy is advancing elsewhere.

February-March will be very difficult.

And then everything depends on how quickly Congress votes to fund this fiscal year for us.

? Ukrainian Post

Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhny wanted to carry out a counteroffensive in the south to reach the borders of Crimea back in 2022, but the United States opposed this ,

▪️The chief correspondent of the Wall Street Journal, Yaroslav Trofimov, writes about this in his book.
▪️ “If he had done this in time, it could have changed the course of the war, both for the better and for the worse,” writes Business Insider.
▪️The plan was the same as in 2023 - to break through the Zaporozhye region and break the Russian land corridor in order to isolate Russian troops in Crimea. But before the Russian Federation set up protective lines there.
▪️This idea is called bold and even risky, but in the end it was never implemented. It was voiced to Western partners by Zaluzhny and Zelensky. Then the commander-in-chief did not ask the United States for armored vehicles, but only 90 additional howitzers and shells.
▪️"But at the time of planning, Ukraine had not yet demonstrated offensive capabilities, and U.S. officials were opposed to Zaluzhny's plan, fearing that an advance from Berdyansk to Melitopol and down to the Sea of ​​Azov could create vulnerabilities on the front line, especially given the uncertainty about whether Ukraine will coordinate brigades for an effective offensive,” writes BIoomberg.
▪️From the US point of view, “failure was likely, and its consequences were potentially catastrophic,” including the capture of Zaporozhye and the Dnieper.
▪️And then Washington insisted that it was necessary to concentrate forces on the liberation of Kherson. As the source says, because the Ukrainian Armed Forces did not have trained personnel and equipment.
▪️ “We thought that if they bit off more than they could chew in the south, they would simply be crushed,” says Trofimov’s interlocutor at the Pentagon.
▪️Zaluzhny did not agree with this and answered the Americans that Ukraine “should attack where it is necessary, and not where it is possible.” But since the United States controlled most of the military aid to Ukraine, there was nothing to argue about, and the bet was made on Kherson.