Parked up on a winter-grey Donbas wheatfield, a Ukrainian military officer pointed out the distant skyline of the city of Avdiivka – or what was left of it.
On one side was the chimney stack of its Soviet-era coking plant. On the other, amid palls of battlefield smoke, were rows of war-ravaged housing blocks. It was a vast panorama of death and destruction – and, in the officer’s bitter words, a symbol of Ukraine’s betrayal by the West.
“If we’d had enough shells, we could be destroying the enemy from spots like this field, as we have a perfect vantage spot,” he said as artillery boomed in the background.
“Even Joe Biden has admitted that we haven’t given enough military aid to Ukraine. Now we’re in the position where we have to decide which village we hand over next to the Russians.”
Russian troops finally raised their flag in Avdiivka last Sunday, handing Vladimir Putin his first victory since taking nearby Bakhmut last May – and one conveniently timed for next month’s Russian presidential elections.
True, only a leader like him would see anything to boast about: the grimy industrial town of 30,000 people is a third of the size of Scunthorpe, and taking it has required the lives of an estimated 20,000 Russian troops. But it is hardly the finest hour for Kyiv’s foreign backers either.
Avdiivka’s fall is not just a story of Russian brute strength, but also of faltering Western support. Thanks to dithering over US and EU military aid packages since the autumn, Kyiv’s forces are running dangerously short on every front – artillery, drones, manpower and, to some extent, morale.