RIGHT SPEAK: UKRainian Forces Repel Attacks in 7 Sectors; UKR Holds Back RUssian Assault on Avdiivka; Repel RU Attacks Near Avdiivka, Klishchiivka, Marinka; UKR Air Force launches 22 Strikes on RU Targets Past 24hrs; UKR Hits Several RU Military Facilities in Crimea, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

War update: Ukrainian forces repel enemy attacks in seven sectors on Tuesday:

Ukrainian forces repelled Russian attacks in the Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Marinka, Shakhtarske and Zaporizhzhia sectors on Tuesday, December 5.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said this in a war update published on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

Throughout the day, 70 combat clashes took place between Ukraine's defense forces and Russian troops. Ukrainian aircraft launched 15 strikes on areas of concentration of enemy manpower, weapons and military equipment, four strikes on command centers and three strikes on Russian anti-aircraft missile systems.

In addition, units of the Ukrainian rocket forces struck six areas of concentration of enemy manpower, weapons and military equipment, a command post, an ammunition depot, two EW stations and 11 artillery pieces.

The aggressor, in turn, launched 4 missile strikes, 53 air strikes and 59 attacks using multiple rocket launchers on the positions of Ukrainian troops and populated areas. Unfortunately, civilians were killed and injured due to Russian terrorist attacks. Private residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure were destroyed and damaged.

The relevant statement was made by Andrii Yusov, the representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate at the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, during a nationwide telethon, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. --->READ MORE HERE

Marek M. Berezowski/Anadolu via Getty Images

Ukraine holds back Russian assault on Avdiivka as long winter battle looms

“Our working hours are as follows: first you do a 12-hour shift, then another one, until you’ve done seven of these 24-hour-shifts, and that’s your week” said Oleksandr Kolesnikov, a 47-year-old surgeon, sitting hunched over on a bench-turned-overflow hospital bed at a Ukrainian stabilization point in a sleepy village in Donetsk Oblast.

“Then, when that week is over, you do another one of those weeks, then two more, and that’s your month.”

Kolesnikov, together with a small medical team, treats soldiers of the 110th Mechanized Brigade, which has stood at the forefront of Ukraine’s defense of the industrial city of Avdiivka, just north of Donetsk, occupied since 2014.

The unit has fought near Avdiivka ever since it was formed in March 2022 at the outset of Russia’s full-scale invasion, but now, the city has for the first time become the undisputed hotspot of the war.

Starting in early October, Russian forces launched a large-scale effort to overwhelm Avdiivka by encircling it from the north and south, all while bombarding the city and the settlements around it with a diverse array of artillery, air-dropped bombs, and suicide drones.

Kolesnikov, a qualified surgeon in civilian life from Rivne Oblast in northwestern Ukraine, had planned to go on 10 days of leave to see his daughter for the first time since he began serving, but the sharp uptick in work brought on by the Russian offensive meant his services were needed more than ever --->READ MORE HERE