In this Friday's briefing at the Estonian Ministry of Defense, Col. Kiviselg said Russia's operational-tactical objectives in Ukraine remain unfulfilled.

"Russia is focused on finding weak points in Ukraine's defense. Ukraine has continued to conduct deep operations and anti-aircraft operations in Russian-occupied territories," Kiviselg said.

According to Col. Kiviselg, the capturing of Avdiivka did not provide the kind of positive media coverage the Russian leadership was looking for ahead of the upcoming presidential elections.

"The death of Alexei Navalny has drawn public attention to Russia's internal problems and reduced positive media coverage of the armed forces. At the same time, discussions have begun to spread in Russian society about the rationale behind the so-called military avant-garde (the part of an army that goes forward ahead of the rest – ed.), which has not often been seen in Russia," Kiviselg said.

There have been no major changes on the battlefield in the northern sections. Russia continues to carry out sabotage operations in Ukrainian areas adjacent to the Kursk and Bryansk regions, Col. Kiviselg said.

In the direction of Luhansk, fighting has been more active. "Russia is exerting pressure on both the Kupiansk and Luhansk directions. There are also initial reports that Russia has started to bring in additional units in that direction. The likely objective is to capture the line of the Oskil River. Russia is holding the initiative, but there has been no major progress on their side. There have been very small, marginal advances," Col. Kiviselg said.

On the Donetsk side, the most active fighting is taking place around Bakhmut, Avdiivka and the city of Donetsk itself.

"After the capture of Avdiivka, it can be seen that Russia is trying to reorganize the units it has there in the area. Units from the Central Military District have suffered heavy losses. The seizure of Avdiivika is currently being cleaned up, so to speak, and being taken under control. There is no sign of Russia bringing more units into the Avdiivka area to try to achieve a further breakthrough there," Kiviselg said.

In the direction of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, Russian activity has been of a lower intensity than in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. "The Ukrainian bridgehead over the Donetsk River still holds – Russia has not been able to push them back across the river," Col. Kiviselg said.c

Ukraine continues to successfully carry out anti-aircraft sorties and strikes on the occupied territories in locations where Russian units are based. "This gives reason to believe that the Ukrainians have a relatively good intelligence picture of what is happening in the occupied Ukrainian territories. They are able to deliver very precise strikes to the right place at the right time, and thereby continue to cause headaches for the Russian armed forces," Col. Kiviselg said.

Sunday marks two years since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Col. Kiviselg stresses that despite taking Avdiivka, Russia has failed to achieve its objective of occupying four Ukrainian oblasts.

"Russia has made a series of miscalculations in launching this war and in prolonging it further and further. The unity of the West has so far not been broken," the EDF colonel added.

"If one of the aims of the war in Ukraine was to prevent NATO enlargement, then in fact the opposite has happened. Finland is already a NATO member and Sweden is about to become one. It can be said that despite its tactical success, Russia has not met its strategic objectives and is not much closer to meeting them," Col. Kiviselg said.

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