Ukrainian troops have been withdrawn from the frontline town of Avdiivka after months of heavy fighting.
The battle for Avdiivka has become one of the bloodiest of the two-year war. Russia has been trying to seize the city since October and has surrounded it on three sides, leaving Ukrainian forces with limited supply routes.
“I decided to withdraw our units from the town and move to defence from more favourable lines in order to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of servicemen,” Oleksandr Syrskie said on Saturday, days after taking the helm of the Ukrainian military in a major shake-up.
Earlier, Oleksandr Tarnavsky, the army’s commander of the Avdiivka area, said that several Ukrainian soldiers had been captured by Russian troops:
“In a situation where the enemy is advancing over the corpses of their own soldiers with a 10-to-one shelling advantage, under constant bombardment, this is the only right decision.”
The town has an important symbolic significance and Moscow hopes its capture will make it more difficult for Ukraine to bomb Donetsk.
