The Ukrainian army withdrew from the town of Evdivka after weeks of fierce fighting against Russian forces

Avdïivka has fallen. Ukrainian troops withdrew from the city in the country’s east on Saturday, February 16, handing Russia its biggest symbolic victory since the failure of a counter-offensive launched by Kiev in the summer of 2023.

“According to the order received, (we) We have reverted to pre-prepared verses from Avadivka”announced the Ukrainian general Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, who commands the area, in a message published on the social network Telegram during the night from Friday to Saturday.

Faced with a growing shortage of resources, especially due to the blocking of American military aid, Ukraine could hardly avoid this withdrawal in the face of Russia. With more troops and ammunition, Moscow pushed its troops to victory, a few days before the second anniversary of the start of the offensive, on 24 February.

“In a situation where the enemy marches on the corpses of his own soldiers and has ten times more shells. (…), This is the only right decision”, General Tarnavsky justified. Ukrainian forces thus avoided encirclement near a largely destroyed industrial city, he assured.

This is the first major decision by the new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian military, Oleksandr Sirsky, appointed on February 8. He is motivated by desire “Save” The lives of his soldiers.

Russian forces “surplus”

“I decided to withdraw our units from the city and advance to the defense on more favorable lines”Oleksandr Sirsky wrote on Facebook. “Our soldiers performed their military duty with dignity, did everything possible to destroy the best Russian military units and inflicted significant damage on the enemy”General Sirsky continued.

Before the formal abandonment of the city, General Tarnawski recognized it “some soldiers” There were Ukrainians “possessed” By Russian forces, who are “Surplus in terms of manpower, artillery and aviation”.

Avdivka, which had about 34,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion began in February 2022, has important symbolic value. The city is now largely destroyed but according to local officials, about 900 civilians live there. Moscow hopes its capture will make bombing Ukrainian Donetsk more difficult.

The city in eastern Ukraine briefly fell to pro-Russian separatists led by Moscow in July 2014, returned to Ukrainian control and remained so despite the proximity and invasion of the separatist capital Donetsk for ten years.

According to Kiev, the Russian army has been increasing its wave of attacks to capture Avidivka since October 2023, despite very high human losses. The situation is reminiscent of the Battle of Bakhmut, a city that Moscow captured in May 2023 after ten months of fighting, at the cost of thousands of dead and wounded.

Zelensky expected in Munich

After the failure of the Ukrainian summer counter-offensive, it was the Russians who attacked, facing a Ukrainian army that was struggling to replenish its ranks and was running low on ammunition.

Avdivka’s arrest comes at a time when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is leading a European tour. In Berlin, he said that he was in permanent contact with the military command, whose main task, according to him, was to save the lives of soldiers and “minimize the damage”.

In this tense context, Mr. Zelenskiy signed two bilateral security agreements with the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in Berlin on Friday, then with the French President, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris. He plans to attend the Security Council in Munich on Saturday and meet US Vice President Kamala Harris there.