Russian attack | Ukraine withdrew from Avdijivka – according to Zelensky, the reason was to save the lives of soldiers

Saturday the other night, the new commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi announced that Ukrainian forces are withdrawing from the town of Avdijivka in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

The city has been in the focus of the war for months and during that time it has been almost completely destroyed. The city has been talked about as the new Bahmut: Bahmut was also fought bloody by the monthly trade, until Russia captured the city in May of last year.

In Syrsky according to Ukraine withdrew from Avdijivka to gain better defensive positions and protect its soldiers. General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi already said on Friday that Ukraine was preparing new defense positions around the city.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi said in his speech at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday morning that Ukraine also withdrew from the city to save lives. Earlier this week, Russia had the Ukrainian supply route to the city cut off.

“To avoid the blockade, it was decided to retreat to other lines,” said Zelenskyi, according to the AFP news agency.

Eastern Ukraine a frontline soldier told AFP he agreed with the decision. According to the soldier, the Ukrainian forces had almost no weapons or ammunition left. HS said on Friday From a Ukrainian officer interviewed by the British broadcasting company BBC, who described the hopelessness of the situation as follows:

“We would have two artillery shells left, but no more propellants for them, so we can't shoot them. We feel strongly responsible for our brothers in arms, who are fighting in Avdijivka with only assault rifles as their weapons,” said the officer.

“Unless we save the lives of the soldiers, we will soon have no one left to fight. But if we lose more territory, we will lose this war,” said a soldier interviewed by AFP.

The situations described by the soldiers highlight Ukraine's ammunition shortage, which Russia is now taking advantage of. Ukraine has suffered especially from the lack of artillery ammunition since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression. The fact that the aid to Ukraine has become a political point of contention in its biggest allies, such as the United States, has made the situation even worse.

Ukrainian the military leadership faced criticism from time to time for defending Bahmut for too long and at too great a cost. This experience seems to have influenced Syrsky's decision to withdraw, assessed by the BBC.

Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander Oleksandr Syrskyi (2nd left) and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov (left) met with the military leadership on the front line in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday. Picture: Armed Forces of Ukraine/AFP

According to the assessment, after the war turned into a positional war, Russia's larger size also began to show. Russia can send new soldiers to the front to replace the fallen quite quickly, despite the huge losses.

Russia concentrated its best-trained troops in the Avdijivka area and fired relentlessly at the city.

Avdijivkan the fall is Russia's greatest achievement since the capture of Bahmut. The city is located just a little northwest of the city of Donetsk, right next to the area known as the contact line during the war in eastern Ukraine.

There was already fighting there between 2014 and 2022, before Russia launched its full-scale offensive. In the year 2014 Russian-backed forces briefly occupied Advijivka before it was retaken by Ukraine.

Before the Russian invasion, 26,000 people lived in Avdijivka. Now there are possibly several hundred of them.