Day 301: December 21A lot of news today is coming from the Donetsk region.Here the Russians have been pushing along the whole front line, and in some parts, the Ukrainians also conducted a number of counterattacks.When it comes to the Avdiivka group, as you remember, the main goal of the Russians here is to take Avdiivka into a pocket by advancing from two directions simultaneously. However, encirclement from the northern part proved to be extremely challenging for the Russians for a variety of reasons. But the same cannot be said for the area to the south of Avdiivka because here, the Russians continue to push every day. The Ukrainians are also very active and counterattack the Russians whenever there is an opportunity to do so. Firstly, the Ukrainians conducted a counterattack on Opytne, which, unfortunately, was unsuccessful. As of now, they are controlling a powerful checkpoint to the north of the settlement, while the Russians control the settlement itself. The Russians tried to assault this checkpoint from Opytne in the past, but their attempts were unsuccessful. It seems like both parties struggle to push each other out, so we may not see rapid changes in this region very soon. That is why the Russians seem to have switched to defense mode here while waiting for the Russians in Vodiane to attack this checkpoint from the back.And the Russians in Vodiane seem to maintain a high intensity of attacks. According to Russian sources, they successfully took the northern part of the village, but this is the third time they claim control over it, with no indication that this is the case. According to Ukrainian sources, their attacks were repelled and judging by the action of the Ukrainians, it seems like the Russians may lose the initiative. Today the Ukrainians have attacked Russian rear positions near Pisky in order to undermine Russian positions in Voidance. Their main idea here is to block Russian reinforcements. It is highly unlikely that the Ukrainians want to maintain their positions here for a long time because the Russian counterattack is imminent. That is why this operation should have been conducted to achieve short-term goals, and the fact that the Ukrainians are trying to limit Russian supplies and support of Vodiane in the short term means that the Ukrainians are preparing a counterattack to the free Vodiane completely.In the meantime, the Russians are moving in the direction of Nevelske. Recently, Ukrainian sources confirmed that the Russians made marginal progress here and took control over certain checkpoints. Nonetheless, their attempts to move further cost them a lot, as they basically have to storm the fields with infantry that finds itself at a crossfire.Some say that the main idea behind taking Nevelske is to cut supplies to Krasnohorivka. At first glance, it seems like a good idea because, given that the southern roads are too close to the front line and cannot be used, this should be their main supply road. This means that if the Russians cut this main road from the north, then the Ukrainians in Krasnohorivka should be in the operational encirclement or simply trapped.However, this is not true. If we look closer, we can see that there are many other roads that lead to Krasnohorivkra from a lot of different settlements. It is true that these roads are unpaved, but given that the temperature is below zero and that the Ukrainians need to travel only a few kilometers, it is obvious that the Russians aren’t even close to endangering the supply and support of this group, even if the Russians take Nevelske and establish fire control over the northern paved road.Overall, the situation on the Avdiivka-Krasnohorivka segment of the front is quite stable, and there is no imminent threat to the Ukrainian positions.