Battles raged along the war front in the eastern Donbas, injuring six Ukrainian fighters and causing an electrical power blackout in the key industrial city of Avdiyivka, the Ukrainian-controlled home to a coke plant that supplies steel mills.
Avdiyivka, 700 kilometers southeast of Kyiv and home to a war-depleted population of 20,000 residents, lost power at 6 p.m. on March 14 amid ongoing clashes.
“Shelling is continuing constantly, short combat clashes are being initiated all night long, and the situation remains very high-stress,” Oleh Mokriychuk, Ukraine’s 72nd mechanized brigade press officer, said.
Overnight into March 15, the militants engaged mortar, heavy artillery and grenade gun fire against Ukrainian units positioned near Zaitseve, Opytne, Luhanske, Troitske and Kamianka, as well as against the Butovka coal mine positions.
“Avdiyvka was left without power again… Mobile connection is running rough, although water supplies are delivered to houses. It should be noted that less than 24 hours have passed since the latest renewal of electricity supplies to the city,” Ukraine’s military press centre in Avdiyivka reported on March 15.
The Donetsk oblast emergency service says the Avdiyivka coke coal plant was cut off electricity again. The plant’s autonomous power unit is heating the city while crucial city services are running on generators.
Due to shelling, the Donetsk water filtration station was shut down, halting centralized water supplies.
Ukrainian forces are still holding their advantageous high-standing positions in the forest east of the city, in the southern industrial zone and in the steep fields around the Butovka coal mine, thus deterring the enemy all along the strategically crucial E-50 highway and road conjunctions leading to the Russian-occupied cities of Horlivka and Yasynuvata.
Ukrainian defenders are focused on holding the buffer area between Avdiyivka and the separatist forces to prevent residential areas from being shelled.
According to the latest figures provided on March 15 by the United Nations, as many as 23 civilians have been killed and 107 wounded in Donbas hostilities since mid-November.
