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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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A rebel Russian unit successfully attacked Russian troops close to the fiercely contested Donetsk town of Avdiivka, where Moscow has focused its efforts in recent months, new footage appears to show.
Grainy footage circulating online appears to show several stages of an operation by the anti-Kremlin Russian Volunteer Corps in Donetsk, including the movements of military vehicles and a series of explosions around a network of trenches.
Some of the clips look to have been filmed by the rebel fighters in eastern Ukraine, with others captured by airborne drones.
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The volunteers "stormed enemy positions" around Avdiivka and then "transferred the position to the control of the Ukrainian armed forces," a concluding statement reads.
Newsweek could not independently verify when or where the footage was filmed and has reached out to the Russian Volunteer Corps and Moscow's Defense Ministry for comment.
The Russian Volunteer Corps, a far-right group started up after the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, is made up of Russian fighters who have been fighting for Kyiv against Moscow. They have taken responsibility for cross-border incursions on Russian territory, and say they have been active in Ukraine's Chernihiv, Kyiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzia, and Donetsk regions as well as Russia's border regions, Bryansk and Belgorod.
The Corps is also thought to have absorbed fighters from the mercenary Wagner Group, which had played a prominent role in the Kremlin's operations in Ukraine before the group's aborted rebellion in June and the death of its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin. It is also believed to include fighters previously enlisted into Russia's penal military units, known as Storm Z.
Moscow's forces began a concerted push around Avdiivka on October 10. The settlement has become a flashpoint of fighting along the largely static front lines and has been a symbol of Ukrainian resistance against Russian and proxy forces in Donetsk for nearly a decade.
Ukrainian officials said on Monday that Russia had upped its assaults on Avdiivka, observing a "significant increase in artillery shelling," and mortar shelling. "There has also been an increase in assault actions," Vitaliy Barabash, who heads the town's military leadership, told Ukrainian media in remarks reported by Reuters.
Russia made confirmed advances north of Avdiivka on Monday, the Washington D.C. think tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its latest update. Moscow's troops have also advanced in Stepove, a village around three miles northwest of Avdiivka, the think tank said.
Ukrainian forces "recently counterattacked near Avdiivka and have regained lost positions" as of Friday, the ISW said.
Russia continues to try and surround Avdiivka, but Ukrainian forces are "steadfastly holding the defense, causing the enemy significant losses," the Ukrainian General Staff said on Tuesday. Kyiv's fighters "repelled" 18 Russian attacks in and around Avdiivka in the past 24 hours, the General Staff said in a statement. Russia did not mention the status of fighting in Avdiivka in a brief update on its southern group of forces in Donetsk on Tuesday.
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