2024-02-19 08:25:21
Russian troops are trying to advance further into eastern Ukraine, launching multiple attacks west of Avdiivka, a day after Kiev’s forces pulled out of the key industrial city, Ukrainian General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commanding forces in the area, said today, quoted by BTA and AFP
“In the area of Avdeevka, the Ukrainian military repelled 14 attacks of the occupiers near Lastochkine”, a village less than 2 km from the northern parts of Avdeevka in the Donetsk region, Tarnavski reported in “Telegram”. Further south, in the Mariinka region, Russian forces “tried 23 times to break through the defenses of our troops,” he added, reporting Russian advances in the southern Zaporozhye region as well.
According to gen. Kyiv’s Tarnavskiy forces have repulsed 13 Russian “attack attempts” near the villages of Robotyne and Verbove (Zaporozhka Oblast), one of the few places where the Ukrainians had regained ground in the 2023 counteroffensive, which largely failed.
“The enemy there suffered significant losses in men and armored vehicles,” assured the commander.
Yesterday, just days before the two-year anniversary of the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow hailed an “important victory”, declaring that it had “full control” of Avdeyevka.
Today, Russia’s defense ministry said it had advanced 8.6km in capturing the largely ruined city, which has been the target of intense Russian attacks since October last year despite suffering heavy losses.
Faced with increasing shortages of soldiers and weapons, the Ukrainian army announced its withdrawal from Avdeyevka on Saturday night.
It was the right decision, which aimed to save the lives of as many people as possible, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said yesterday.
The fall of the city, which has only about 900 inhabitants left from about 34,000 before the war, is of great symbolic importance to both sides. In July 2014, Avdeevka briefly fell into the hands of Moscow-led separatists before returning to Ukrainian control. It is located only ten kilometers from the city of Donetsk – the separatist “capital”, which has been eluding Kiev’s control for ten years, AFP notes.