2024-02-17 00:56:15
The Ukrainian army says it has withdrawn from the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, which has been under dispute for months. The soldiers “withdrew from Avdiivka to previously prepared positions in accordance with an order,” wrote General Oleksandr Tarnavskij, who is responsible for the sector of the front, in the Telegram online service that night. The Ukrainian withdrawal is Russia’s biggest symbolic victory since the failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive last summer.
General Tarnavsky further wrote that “in view of the operational situation around Avdiivka,” he had decided to “withdraw the units from the city” and “shift the defense to more favorable lines in order to avoid encirclement and to protect the life and health of the soldiers “.
A few hours earlier, Tarnavsky had already reported the withdrawal from several positions in Avdiivka and the capture of several Ukrainian soldiers by the Russian army.
Russia had been trying to take Avdiivka for months. The city, which had around 33,000 inhabitants before the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, is located in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. This is one of four regions that the Kremlin declared annexed in 2022.
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