Within hours, the bloodiest battle of the 21st century (so far) will be over.

For those who have not kept up on developments in the Russian Special Military Operation (SMO), Avdiivka is the place from which the Ukrainian Army has shelled the civilians of Donetsk City for TEN YEARS!

There are going to be lots of tactical, strategic, and political implications from this that we will see over the next days and weeks.

There are reportedly very FEW Ukrainian defenses behind Avdiivka; the Ukrainians put all their eggs into one basket, counting on the deep Soviet-era nuclear bunker system, and defenses built since the end of the civil war to make it "impregnable."

ALL of those defenses have failed and the Russian Army now controls the city.

(HT Remark: Remember how CNN and Bloomberg crowed endlessly that cutting Russia off from SWIFT was like using a Nuclear Weapon, and that there was no way Russia could survive that?  Here we are, two years later, and now, there is no way for UKRAINE to survive!)

This is a developing story . . . check back for updates.

UPDATE

Confirmation video of Russian soldiers under a main highway bridge in the city of Avdiivka: