The military spokesman for the front sector, Dmytro Lykhovy, said this on Ukrainian television on Saturday. Some soldiers were taken prisoner in Avdiivka, it said. Meanwhile, Air Force Chief Mykola Oleshchuk spread positive news: three Russian fighter pilots had been shot down in the east.
These are two Su-34 fighter bombers and one Su-35 fighter jet, said Oleschtschuk on Telegram. If confirmed, it would mean a loss of more than $100 million for Russia in advanced fighter aircraft.
At Avdiivka, the situation is likely to calm down. “The intensity of the fighting decreased following midnight until six o’clock (5 a.m. CET),” said military spokesman Lykhovy. After the peak of the attacks the day before, a shorter lull from the Russians is expected.
Some soldiers in captivity
Brigadier General Olexander Tarnawskyi said that some soldiers were taken prisoner by the Russians during the retreat from the city. In the final phase of the withdrawal, some soldiers were captured under pressure from the vastly superior enemy forces, he said.
It remained unclear to which line the Ukrainian troops withdrew. During the night, the commander of the Third Assault Brigade, Andriy Bilezkyj, also confirmed his unit’s withdrawal. Shortly before, they had distributed pictures of their soldiers from bunkers in the coking plant that dominates the city. It was initially unclear whether the factory, which had not previously been threatened with closure, had also been abandoned.
During the night, the new Ukrainian commander-in-chief, Olexander Syrskyj, announced the withdrawal from Avdiivka, which had been fought over for months. The decision was made “to save Ukrainian lives,” said President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference. At the same time, he emphasized that this would not give the enemy any advantage in the war.
Advance with great losses
Since October, Russian troops had advanced on the city, which once had over 30,000 inhabitants, with great losses. Observers had suspected that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered the city to be taken before the Russian presidential elections in mid-March. The front line between separatists loyal to Moscow and the Ukrainian army has been running near Avdiivka since 2014. Almost two years ago, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
A conquest of the city by Russian troops would not be strategically important, but it might be exploited by the Kremlin for propaganda purposes before the Russian presidential election in March, wrote the experts at the US Institute for War Studies. Most recently, Ukraine had to give up the city of Bakhmut, which had also been fought over for months, in the spring of 2023. The fall of Avdiivka has been the biggest setback for Ukraine since then.
“The only right decision”
Syrsky further wrote that the soldiers fulfilled their military duty with dignity and did everything “to destroy the best Russian military units”; they inflicted significant losses on personnel and equipment on the enemy. “We are taking measures to stabilize the situation and maintain our positions.” The lives of military personnel are the highest value.
The commanding general for this sector of the front, Alexander Tarnavskyj, wrote on Telegram that the army left Avdiivka according to orders and reached the prepared positions. “In a situation where the enemy is advancing under constant bombardment over the corpses of his own soldiers and has a ten to one advantage, this is the only correct decision,” he wrote. The encirclement was prevented, the personnel were withdrawn, and the soldiers took up the defense on the designated lines.
“Inhumane conditions”
In recent days, the situation for the Ukrainian defenders in the city had become increasingly difficult. The Ukrainian defenders fought back in “inhumane conditions,” the press service of the 110th brigade of the Ukrainian army deployed in Avdiivka wrote on Facebook on Friday. “Today the enemy is throwing enormous forces in the form of personnel, armored vehicles and aircraft towards Avdiivka.”
According to its own statements, Russian air defenses fended off two Ukrainian drones in the southwestern Russian region of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine on Saturday night. This was announced by the state news agency Tass, citing the region’s governor. According to preliminary information, there were no injuries or damage. It was initially not possible to independently verify whether all of the projectiles might actually be repelled on approach. The Russian side, which has been waging a war of aggression once morest its neighboring country for almost two years now, often only reports supposed successes of its own air defense in the case of Ukrainian drone attacks. In its defense once morest the Russian invasion, Ukraine repeatedly shells Russian territory – both in the border region and in the hinterland. However, the number of victims and damage are disproportionate to the serious consequences of the war in Ukraine.
