Hours after Kyiv announced it had pulled out troops from Avdiivka, Russia on Saturday (Feb 17) said it had assumed “full control” of the eastern Ukrainian city. Kyiv said it had taken the decision to save the lives of its soldiers.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said President Vladimir Putin had congratulated the military on “such an important victory”.
The capture of Avdiivka, which lies in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, represents Russia’s biggest victory in the war since May last year and signals that the conflict could drag on.
Former Ukrainian Armed Forces chief General Valery Zaluzhnyi had warned in December last year that Avdiivka would be taken over by the ‘enemies’ due to their persistence.
“The enemy has the ability to concentrate its forces, including artillery and aviation, in one direction or another. And they can make it so that in two-three months the town [Avdiivka] will have the same fate as Bakhmut,” said Zaluzhnyi at the time.
Ukraine’s new military chief and Zaluzhnyi’s successor, Oleksandr Syrsky Zaluzhnyi explained the decision to recall his troops.
“I decided to withdraw our units from the city and switch to defence on more favourable lines,” said Syrsky on Facebook.
“Our soldiers performed their military duty with dignity, did everything possible to destroy the best Russian military units and inflicted significant losses on the enemy,” he added.
Kremlin has claimed Avdiivka to be part of Russia since a 2022 annexation that remains unrecognised by nearly all United Nations members. In July 2014, the region briefly fell into the hands of pro-Russian separatists before returning to Ukrainian control.
Prior to the war, the city housed around 30,000 inhabitants but since then, most of the houses have been destroyed and fewer than 1,000 residents remain, per local officials.
Ukraine’s war struggles
Despite launching a much-publicised counter-offensive last year, the Ukrainian troops under President Volodymyr Zelensky have made little to no inroads.
With the weapons arsenal and funding now drying up, Zelensky is anxiously looking towards the US Congress to approve another tranche of aid money.
US lawmakers are engaged in a $95 billion security aid package for Ukraine and other allies but friction between the Republicans and Democrats has stopped the aid bill from passing through.
(With inputs from agencies)
