Ukraine’s forces have withdrawn from the key eastern city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, giving Putin‘s invading forces a symbolic victory after weeks of savage fighting.
General Oleksandr Tarnavsky, who commands the area, said early on Saturday: ‘Based on the operational situation around Avdiivka, in order to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of servicemen, I decided to withdraw our units from the city and move to defence on more favorable lines.’
The withdrawal follows months of fierce Russian attacks and marks the biggest change on the front lines since Moscow troops captured Bakhmut in May last year.
The forces were rallying on Friday to save a key eastern city from Russia‘s onslaught amid shortages of ammo and manpower.
Ahead of the second anniversary of the Russian invasion, Kyiv said on Friday that it was sending reinforcements to Avdiivka – a main target for Moscow on the front lines.
The withdrawal follows months of fierce Russian attacks and marks the biggest change on the front lines since Moscow troops captured Bakhmut in May last year
The eastern town has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance against the Russian attack.
Russia’s forces launched a costly bid to seize Avdiivka last autumn, resulting in massive damage to the town and heavy casualties, reminiscent of the battle for Bakhmut.
The Ukrainian army said it was reinforcing units, with troops ‘manoeuvring on threatened axes,’ adding: ‘Ukrainian defenders continue to hold back the enemy who keeps trying to encircle Avdiivka. The Ukrainian soldiers are standing their ground.’
Russia has been trying to capture Avdiivka for months, and has managed to surround the industrial hub on three sides – at the cost of thousands of lives.
One official said the situation was even more challenging than Bakhmut.
‘It was difficult there (in Bakhmut) but now it is extremely difficult,’ said the spokesman of the 3rd Assault Brigade, Oleksandr Borodin, adding the Avdiivka fight was comparatively ‘more difficult’ because Russian forces are now better equipped.
A Ukrainian army unit said on Thursday it had piled yet more troops in to defend Avdiivka, describing the situation there as ‘extremely critical’.
‘Fierce battles are taking place within the city,’ Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, a Ukrainian general in the east, said on social media on Friday.
Online maps of troop movements prepared by military bloggers close to both the Ukrainian and Russian armies showed Russian forces closing in on Avdiivka, taking over positions held by Ukrainian forces the day before.
‘New positions have been prepared and powerful fortifications continue to be prepared, taking into account all possible scenarios,’ Tarnavskiy said.
He called the situation in Avdiivka ‘difficult but controlled’ and said commanders have been tasked to ‘stabilise the situation.’
An aerial view of Avdiivka’s destroyed buildings on February 15, 2023. Almost every building in the city has been damaged or destroyed, according to the Centre for Information Resilience
A general view of smoke rising from the Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant on February 15, 2023 in Avdiivka district, Ukraine
Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a security pact with France on Friday hours after securing a similar deal with Germany hailed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz as a ‘historic step’ to lock in support for Kyiv in its raging battle against Russia.
The agreement with France, signed by Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee palace, includes a French pledge for up to 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) in aid for 2024, after 1.7 billion in 2022 and 2.1 billion last year, officials said.
They said the pact would run for 10 years, and notably strengthen cooperation in the area of artillery.
They said the deal was aimed at helping Ukraine with the ‘re-establishment of its territorial integrity within its internationally-recognised borders’, and forestall ‘any renewed Russian aggression’.
The deal is also to help pave the way towards Ukraine’s future integration into the European Union and NATO, the officials said.
‘France affirms that a future Ukrainian membership would constitute a useful contribution to peace and stability in Europe,’ they said, quoting from the agreement.
Speaking on Thursday night, Zelensky vowed that his government would do ‘everything’ to save lives in the town.
The battle for the industrial hub, less than six miles north of the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk, has been one of the bloodiest of the two-year war.
Ukraine’s top commander admitted on Wednesday that Ukraine was outnumbered on the battlefield.
‘The objective situation in Avdiivka remains threatening and unstable. The enemy continues the active rotation of troops and is throwing new forces and resources into the city,’ Ukraine’s Third Separate Assault Brigade said.
The general staff of Ukraine’s army said separately that troops ‘continue to hold back the enemy, who keeps trying to surround Avdiivka’, adding that Russia launched 34 attacks in the area on Wednesday.
Almost every building has been damaged or destroyed, according to the Centre for Information Resilience.
Despite daily shelling, almost 1,000 residents have remained in the town, once home to over 30,000 people, its mayor Vitaly Barabash said in early February.
A Ukrainian army spokesman said bringing in resupplies to the town and evacuating those who want to leave had become ‘complicated’.
A Ukrainian serviceman of the 82nd Separate Air Assault Brigade drives a Challenger 2 tank in an undisclosed location near frontline in Zaporizhzhia region, on February 12, 2024
This handout photograph taken and released by Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on December 29, 2023, shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recording a video address in front of a sign reading ‘Avdiivka is Ukraine’. Fighting raged in the town today as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Berlin to rally Western support
The fate of Avdiivka also drew concern in Washington, Ukraine’s key backer.
‘Avdiivka is at risk of falling into Russian control,’ US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Thursday.
Democratic President Joe Biden and the Republican-led House are at an impasse over a White House request for $60 billion in military aid to help Ukraine’s defence as the Russian invasion enters its third year.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg had warned on Thursday that the delay was already limiting Ukraine’s battlefield capacity.
On top of the US aid hold-up, the European Union has admitted that it will only be able to send half of the one million artillery shells it had originally promised would be despatched by March.
The EU recently agreed a €50 billion aid package for Ukraine, and a further $60 billion aid package is currently being held up in the United States.
But even if the aid packages did make their way to Kyiv, questions remain over its supplies of ammo and equipment – and where more could come from.
Analysts fear that without increased support from the West, Russia’s overwhelming numbers – and Putin’s willingness to send so many of his soldiers to their deaths – could soon change the tide of the war in Putin’s favour.
