The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) retreated from Avdiivka in disorganization and panic. The newspaper wrote about this on March 2 The Washington Post with reference to Ukrainian soldiers.
According to one of them, a 21-year-old military man, by the time of the retreat he became the head of his unit, since due to the large number of wounded there was no one older. He called the exit of Ukrainian troops from Avdiivka “the road of death.”
Another interlocutor of the publication said that some Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters in the city lost contact with the command and did not know about the order to retreat.
As journalists note, the loss of Avdeevka was a crushing defeat for Kyiv. At the same time, the testimony of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers clearly demonstrates the severity of Ukraine’s disadvantageous position on the battlefield, the authors added.
Avdeevka was liberated by the Russian Armed Forces on February 17. On this day, the head of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Sergei Shoigu, said that the capture of the city made it possible to move the front line away from Donetsk and, therefore, significantly secure the city from attacks by the Kiev regime, since the Armed Forces of Ukraine, since 2014, regularly shelled residential areas of Donetsk from Avdeevka.
Later, on February 21, WP reported that the Ukrainian Armed Forces military retreated from the city without coordination with the command due to fatigue. Secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence of Ukraine Roman Kostenko also noted on March 2 that when fleeing, Ukrainian soldiers did not have defensive fortifications to consolidate their positions.
The special operation to protect Donbass, the start of which was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was made against the backdrop of an aggravation of the situation in the region due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.
Watch more current videos and details about the situation in Donbass on the Izvestia TV channel.
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