By Anna Pruchnicka
(Reuters) -&nbsp;Russian forces pummelled the&nbsp;eastern&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;town&nbsp;of&nbsp;Avdiivka&nbsp;from the ground and air on Friday, the fourth day of intense&nbsp;fighting&nbsp;in the biggest offensive by&nbsp;Russian forces in months.
Ukraine said its forces were holding their ground but Vitaliy Barabash, the head of&nbsp;Avdiivka's military administration, said the&nbsp;town&nbsp;was under constant attack from air, artillery and large numbers of troops.
"The battles have been going on for four days now. Fierce and really non-stop ... They are firing from everything they have available," Barabash said in televised comments.
"It was a very hot night in&nbsp;Avdiivka. There were several air strikes on the city itself ... the attacks do not stop day or night."
The attack on&nbsp;Avdiivka&nbsp;is one of the few big assaults&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;has mounted since&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;forces launched a counteroffensive in early June to try to drive out&nbsp;Russian troops occupying large swathes of territory in the&nbsp;east&nbsp;and south.
In the last few months,&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;has focused on holding back&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;forces who have made slow progress through&nbsp;Russian minefields and heavily fortified trenches, and on carrying out air strikes on port and grain infrastructure.
But Kyiv says Moscow has massed troops around&nbsp;Avdiivka&nbsp;and sent in&nbsp;heavy&nbsp;equipment, enabling it to hit back hard.
It says Moscow aims to encircle and capture the&nbsp;town, just northwest of the&nbsp;Russian-occupied city of Donetsk, and draw in&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;troops from other fronts.
Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports.
'OUR LAND'
Avdiivka&nbsp;is home to a big coking plant and has become a symbol of resistance as it has prevented&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;taking full control of the Donetsk region, which&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;says it has annexed.
The&nbsp;town&nbsp;has not only held out against&nbsp;Russia's forces since its full-scale invasion in February 2022 but has resisted capture since 2014, when&nbsp;Russian-backed militants seized territory in&nbsp;east&nbsp;Ukraine after&nbsp;Russian forces captured Crimea.
"The&nbsp;Russians threw a lot of forces in this direction. They are betting on quantity. Our army is holding positions in&nbsp;heavy&nbsp;fighting," Andriy Yermak, the head of the presidential office, wrote on the X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter.
"Avdiivka. A&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;city. Our land," he wrote.
Russia's Defence Ministry said on Thursday its forces had inflicted damage on&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;troops in areas including&nbsp;Avdiivka&nbsp;but gave few details.&nbsp;Russian military bloggers have hailed limited&nbsp;Russian advances near&nbsp;Avdiivka&nbsp;this week.
The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said their troops had in the past 24 hours repelled more than 20&nbsp;Russian attacks in the area around&nbsp;Avdiivka&nbsp;and nearby villages.
Barabash said that one person had been confirmed killed, and that two civilians who were trapped under rubble were also likely to be dead.
He said the delivery of humanitarian aid and food had been halted during the intense&nbsp;fighting&nbsp;but the&nbsp;town&nbsp;was well stocked and had reserves for a few months.
He estimated on Thursday that some 1,600 residents remained in&nbsp;Avdiivka, which had a pre-war population of 32,000.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), an American non-profit research group, said that as of Thursday,&nbsp;Russian forces had not secured any major breakthroughs near&nbsp;Avdiivka&nbsp;and were unlikely to immediately cut off&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;forces in the&nbsp;town.
It estimated that&nbsp;Russian forces have captured 4.52 square kilometres (1.75 square miles) of territory around&nbsp;Avdiivka&nbsp;since the beginning of their offensive on Tuesday.
Geolocated footage indicated that&nbsp;Russian forces had likely lost at least&nbsp;a battalion tactical group's worth of armoured vehicles in the&nbsp;Avdiivka&nbsp;offensive, it said.
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka, Editing by Timothy Heritage, Robert Birsel)

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Russia pummels east Ukrainian town of Avdiivka in heavy fighting