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Avdiivka, one year later Looking back on the battle that left a longtime Ukrainian stronghold in ruins and under Russian occupation
Source: Meduza
One year ago today, on February 17, 2024, Russia announced the capture of Avdiivka, one of the Ukrainian army’s key strongholds in the Donetsk region. Avdiivka has been a frontline city for the past 10 years, ever since war broke out in Ukraine’s east in 2014. After Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, Avdiivka became one of Russia’s main targets in this section of the front line. The next two years of fighting reduced the city to rubble. But since it came under occupation, Russian propagandists have regularly reported on Avdiivka’s “restoration.” Meduza looks back on the fight for Avdiivka, in photos.
The sign at the main entrance to Avdiivka, one year after Russian troops captured the city. February 16, 2025.
Dmitry Yagodkin / TASS / Profimedia
Avdiivka, February 16, 2025
Dmitry Yagodkin / TASS / Profimedia
Avdiivka, February 16, 2025
Dmitry Yagodkin / TASS / Profimedia
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Avdiivka, November 30, 2024. After Russia occupied Avdiivka, the country’s Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug assumed “patronage” over the city. Last November, Governor Dmitry Artyukhov said that Yamal builders were completing work on the “restoration” of the first residential building in the destroyed city.
Stanislav Krasilnikov / RIA-Novosti / Sputnik / Profimedia
Avdiivka, November 30, 2024. Russian state media have circulated photos of “restored” apartments in the city; here’s one example.
Stanislav Krasilnikov / RIA-Novosti / Sputnik / Profimedia
A view of Lastochkyne, a village near Avdiivka that Russian troops occupied during their assault on the city. The smoke in the background was rising from Avdiivka’s burning coke plant. February 15, 2024.
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
The Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant, which served as a fortress for the Ukrainian military. November 25, 2024.
Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
A photo taken from the entrance to the basement of a destroyed apartment building in occupied Avdiivka, which Russia used as a “polling location” during last year’s presidential vote. March 16, 2024.
Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
The entrance to a “polling location” in the basement of a destroyed apartment building in Avdiivka. Russia organized “early voting” in all of the occupied territories of Ukraine, which Russian authorities refer to as the country’s “new regions.” March 16, 2024.
Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Tetyana, 67, collects wood to heat her home in a village near the Avdiivka front line that was also destroyed during the Russian military’s offensive. February 22, 2024.
Narciso Contreras / Anadolu / Getty Images
Avdiivka, December 31, 2023. In early 2024, Russia deployed huge numbers of forces to storm the city. As Meduza reported, in the offensive’s later stages, up to 50,000 Russian troops may have been sent into battle against units from nine Ukrainian brigades staffed with as many as 30,000 to 35,000 people.
Pierre Crom / Getty Images
Avdiivka residents sort through the rubble of their home after being shelled by artillery on October 26, 2023. Civilians remained in the city even during the most intense battles, despite the Ukrainian authorities’ calls to evacuate.
Kostya Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
A bombed vehicle in a residential area of Avdiivka on December 31, 2023. Russian forces began an active assault on the city that October, continuing to try and capture it despite significant losses.
Pierre Crom / Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelensky on a visit to Avdiivka to show support for Ukrainian troops as Russian forces attacked the city. December 29, 2023.
Ukrainian presidential press service / Planet Pix / ZUMA Press Wire / Scanpix / LETA
The boots of soldiers from the Ukrainian army’s 59th Motorized Brigade as they prepared to fire artillery towards Russian positions to support frontline troops in the Avdiivka direction. December 16, 2023.
Ozge Elif Kizil / Anadolu / Getty Images
Soldiers of the Ukrainian army’s 59th Motorized Brigade in position on the approach to Avdiivka. December 16, 2023.
Ozge Elif Kizil / Anadolu / Getty Images
A silhouette of a soldier from the Ukrainian army’s 59th Motorized Brigade on the front line near Avdiivka. December 16, 2023.
Ozge Elif Kizil / Anadolu / Getty Images
The front line near Avdiivka. December 16, 2023.
Ozge Elif Kizil / Anadolu / Getty Images
In the vicinity of Avdiivka. December 16, 2023.
Ozge Elif Kizil / Anadolu / Getty Images
Bodies of Russian soldiers in a trench on the slopes of Avdiivka on December 23, 2023. In February 2024, pro-war Russian blogger Andrey Morozov (also known by the pseudonym Murz) wrote on Telegram that the Russian army had lost 16,000 soldiers in the battle for Avdiivka. Morozov deleted the post following fierce criticism from Russian propagandists and reportedly died by suicide shortly thereafter.
Kostya Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
Smoke rises from the rubble of a residential building in Avdiivka destroyed by Russian shelling on October 11, 2023. Russian forces spent several months trying to cut off the supply lines of the Ukrainian troops defending Avdiivka, including those holed up in the local coke plant. But they only managed to do so in early 2024, after increasing their groupings and changing their main direction of attack.
Oleg Palchyk / Global Images Ukraine / Getty Images
Ukrainian soldiers and volunteers try to load horses into a truck to evacuate them from an abandoned horse farm in Avdiivka. April 25, 2023.
Libkos / AP / Scanpix / LETA
Hanging laundry seen near a destroyed residential building in Avdiivka. April 4, 2023.
Genya Savilov / AFP / Scanpix / LETA
Local resident Oleksandr saws firewood outside of his heavily damaged apartment building in Avdiivka. November 8, 2023.
Serhii Nuzhnenko / Radio Liberty / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Avdiivka, October 17, 2023
Ozge Elif Kizil / Anadolu / Getty Images
A taped window in a home in Semenivka, a village 10 kilometers (six miles) west of Avdiivka, on March 28, 2023. Russia’s military announced the capture of Semenivka in late April 2024, a month and a half after it occupied Avdiivka.
Violeta Santos Moura / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Lyubov Vasilivna, 71, was one of the few residents to remain in Semenivka. She listed economic vulnerability, old age, her animals, and the house where she was born as her reasons not to evacuate. March 28, 2023.
Violeta Santos Moura / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Members of the Avdiivka police department roam the city providing transport to residents who decided to evacuate. March 5, 2023.
Laurent Van der Stockt / Le Monde / Getty Images
A destroyed kindergarten in Avdiivka. December 20, 2022.
Chris McGrath / Getty Images
A shelter in Avdiivka on May 13, 2022. The city had been under constant shelling since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Diego Herrera Carcedo / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
A military helicopter flies over Avdiivka days before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. February 17, 2022.
Ali Atmaca / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images