The city of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine has been fought over for months. Now the Ukrainian troops have to withdraw. Experts believe that the capture of Avdiivka has primarily symbolic significance for Russia.
Russia has captured the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, which has been under dispute for months. “Given the operational situation around Avdiivka, I decided to withdraw our units from the city and go into defense on more favorable lines in order to avoid encirclement and protect the life and health of soldiers,” wrote new Ukrainian army commander Oleksandr Syrskyj near X. The army apparently doesn’t want to give up the city. One will return.
The soldiers “withdrew from Avdiivka to previously prepared positions in accordance with an order,” wrote General Oleksandr Tarnawskyj, who was responsible for the sector of the front, on Telegram that night. Tarnavskyi had previously reported the withdrawal from several positions in Avdiivka and the capture of several Ukrainian soldiers by the Russian army.
Withdrawal was “the only correct decision” given a situation in which “the enemy is advancing over the corpses of its own soldiers, with a superiority of ten to one, under constant fire,” Tarnawskyj wrote.
Hatched: territories occupied by Russia
Avdiivka has primarily symbolic meaning
The Ukrainian withdrawal is Russia’s biggest symbolic victory since the failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive last summer. 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. According to the organization Center for Information Resilience, almost all buildings in the city were damaged or destroyed.
A conquest of the city by Russian troops would not be strategically important, but it could be exploited by the Kremlin for propaganda purposes before the Russian presidential election in March, wrote the experts at the US Institute for War Studies.
Avdiivka also has great symbolic significance because pro-Russian separatists led from Moscow had already taken the city in July 2014 – but Ukrainian units took it back under their control shortly afterwards. Although the city is less than ten kilometers from the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, it has always remained under Ukrainian control since then.
“Inhumane conditions”
In recent days, the situation for the Ukrainian defenders in the city had become increasingly difficult. They fought back under “inhumane conditions,” the press service of the 110th brigade of the Ukrainian army deployed in Avdiivka wrote on Facebook on Friday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said before the withdrawal from Avdiivka: “We are doing the maximum so that our soldiers have sufficient administrative and technological capabilities to save as many Ukrainian lives as possible.”
The USA considers the lack of ammunition to be an important reason for the problems of the Ukrainian army. National Security Council Communications Director John Kirby said. Since the US Congress has not yet passed the corresponding additional law for further aid to Ukraine, Ukraine cannot be supplied with the urgently needed artillery shells.