Alwaght- Ukrainian troops have been ordered to leave the city of Avdeevka, Kiev’s newly-appointed commander-in-chief has said, claiming the decision was intended to preserve the “lives and health” of soldiers following months of desperate attempts to hold on to the frontline town near Donetsk, RT news of Russia reported.
General Aleksandr Syrsky announced the pull-out in a statement published on social media in the early hours of Saturday morning, arguing that the withdrawal was part of “measures to stabilize the situation and maintain our positions.”
“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 defense on more favorable lines,” he said.
The order follows reports that Ukrainian troops in the area were almost fully surrounded and faced near-constant attacks in recent days, with one local commander saying fighting in the area was “several times more hellish than the hottest battles of this phase of the war.” He was referring to the earlier struggle over the city of Artyomovsk (also known as Bakhmut in Ukraine), which fell to Russian troops last year following a lengthy siege.
The decision to leave Avdeevka came less than 24 hours after the head of Ukrainian forces in the southern part of Russia’s Donetsk and Zaporozhye Regions, Aleksandr Tarnavsky, claimed that the situation in the city was “difficult but under control” on Friday.
The Western allies of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have been propping up Kiev with funding and weapons, but after Israeli war on Gaza started in October, major part of their focus shifted to Tel Aviv. Ukraine has been warning recently thar if the Western aids are scaled down, it could lose part of its positions in war with Russia.
