Source: Reuters, archive
Ukraine’s army has withdrawn from the eastern city of Avdeevka, where the situation has significantly worsened in recent days, Ukrainian General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, who commands the forces in that area, reported, AFP reported.
“According to the received order, we withdrew from Avdeevka to previously prepared positions,” he wrote in Telegram. “In the situation where the enemy is advancing, walking on the corpses of their own soldiers and with 10 times more shells… this is the only correct decision,” he added.
This is Russia’s biggest victory from a symbolic point of view since Kiev’s failed counter-offensive last summer, AFP notes. The retreat is also the first key decision of the new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Sirsky, appointed to the post on February 8. “I have decided to withdraw our units from the city and move to defense in more favorable positions,” Sirski wrote shortly after Tarnavski’s announcement. “Our soldiers performed their military duty with dignity. They did everything in their power to destroy the best Russian units and inflicted significant damage on the enemy,” he added.
Avdeyevka, home to around 34,000 people before the Russian invasion in February 2022, fell to pro-Russian separatists in July 2014 before being returned to Ukrainian control. It is located in the Donetsk region, whose regional center has been in the hands of the separatists for 10 years.
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