2024-02-17 10:20:00
(CNN) — Russia captured some Ukrainian soldiers during the withdrawal of Kyiv forces from the key town of Avdiivka, according to the commander of southern Ukraine forces.
Ukraine announced on Friday its withdrawal from the town, northwest of the city of Donetsk, after some of the heaviest fighting of the Russian war in Ukraine.
The move followed Moscow’s intensified attacks on the area in recent weeks, as Russia bombarded it with airstrikes and artillery and sent waves upon waves of ground assaults with armored vehicles and soldiers.
Withdrawal from the city was “the only correct solution,” the commander of southern Ukraine forces, Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, said in a Telegram message on Friday, adding that some soldiers had been captured in the process.
“In a situation where the enemy is advancing on the corpses of its own soldiers with a ten-to-one advantage in shells, under constant bombardment, this is the only correct solution,” he said. Russian troops are “numerically superior in personnel, artillery and aviation,” Tarnavskyi added.
Moscow’s forces had carried out 20 airstrikes and more than 150 artillery strikes in the area in the past 24 hours, he said, adding that the Russians were “practically wiping the city off the face of the earth.”
The decision comes just days after Ukraine’s new military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov visited the front lines in Avdiivka, pledging to send reinforcements to “prevent the enemy from advancing deeper” .
However, on Thursday Ukrainian forces fighting to hold the city described “hellish” conditions and the enemy “coming in from all sides.”
Syrskyi said in a Facebook post on Friday that he ordered the withdrawal “to avoid encirclement and preserve the life and health of the military” and that he was moving troops to defend “more favorable lines.”
Oleksandr Syrskyi (Credit: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)
He said Ukrainian soldiers had done “everything possible to destroy the best Russian military units and inflicted significant losses on the enemy in terms of manpower and equipment.”
Ukraine was “taking measures to stabilize the situation and maintain positions,” he said, adding that “the lives of military personnel are of the highest value.”
The commander of the Ukrainian 3rd Assault Brigade, which as one of Ukraine’s most battle-hardened units had been sent to defend Avdiivka, said the withdrawal meant Ukrainian troops could “come back and hit even harder.”
“I thank the command for its thoughtful decision,” Andrii Biletsky said in a Telegram post on Saturday. “I thank the soldiers for the brave fight they waged against the enemy at Avdiivka in the face of the absolute numerical superiority of the Russians in men, equipment and shells,” he added.
Russia has also suffered immense losses in its offensive on Avdiivka, but Moscow appears to have calculated that, given its numerical advantage, they were worth it.
An undoubted blow for Ukraine
Ukraine’s withdrawal represents a tangible gain for Moscow and is an indication of how the war appears to have swung in Putin’s favor in recent months.
The town lies immediately northwest of the city of Donetsk, under Russian control since 2014. As such, the capture of Avdiivka makes Donetsk much better protected and more difficult for Ukraine to attack. It also has a huge coke plant on its outskirts, as well as a railway line running through it, which could facilitate more efficient Russian supply lines.
His loss is an undoubted blow for Ukraine.
A counteroffensive launched months ago aimed at recapturing substantial territory has failed and the country is seeing signs that once rock-solid Western support is waning, especially from its key ally, the United States.
And with Ukraine lagging elsewhere on the front, the new head of the Ukrainian army, Syrskyi, faces a huge challenge in taking on Russia.
Moscow troops went on the offensive around Avdiivka in October. Since then, it became a point of intense fighting with Russian bombing at all hours and waves of soldiers and armored vehicles pressing in.
Russia had concentrated its efforts on encircling Avdiivka and taking control of nearby areas.
A Ukrainian officer, Serhii Tsekhotskyi, recently told Ukrainian television that Russia was deploying large numbers of soldiers to the battle for Avdiivka. He insisted that they were killing many.
“They do not forgive their people,” he said.
The Russian assault was similar to the “meat grinder” tactics used to capture Bakhmut last year, where one NATO source estimated that for every Ukrainian soldier killed, Russia lost five.
However, Moscow’s advances in Avdiivka had been slowed by Ukrainian troops, heavily entrenched in the area.
In November, CNN detailed how Ukrainian soldier Oleh Sentsov, formerly a famous filmmaker, filmed a 5-hour battle with helmets and body cameras in Avdiivka, illustrating the cruelty of war and the horrors of the trenches. He and his men found themselves fighting from all sides, caught in a movement of Russian troops.
“Our assault group had to hold a 150-meter-wide trench. We entered, advanced 50 meters and could not advance further because there was strong resistance there from a lot of enemy infantry,” Sentsov said in a rare interview with CNN.
Ukraine claimed to have dealt massive blows to Russian military personnel and equipment since the beginning of the renewed Russian offensive.
President Volodymyr Zelensky in December called the fighting in the city an “onslaught” and said the battle could “in many ways determine the overall course of the war.”
pressure in front
The capture of the city comes as Ukraine warns that it faces a renewed Russian offensive along much of the front line, with intense fighting in the northeast along a stretch of territory where the regions of Kharkiv and Luhansk.
Moscow’s forces have not made much progress in that area, but Ukraine has been forced to give up some pockets of territory that it had reconquered in its successful advance in late summer 2022.
The recent wave of Russian offensives comes as Ukraine has also said it is facing a serious shortage of ammunition, essential for its troops on the battlefield.
President Joe Biden’s national security adviser warned late last year: “We are running out of money and almost out of time.”
On February 7, Senate Republicans blocked a major bipartisan border deal and foreign aid package with assistance for Ukraine and Israel, amid a torrent of attacks on the bill from former President Donald Trump and top Republicans. The House of Representatives. The White House is making another attempt to win congressional approval for military aid to Kyiv, but it is far from clear whether House Republicans, in particular, will support it.
Since Hamas’s attack on Israel last year and the growing conflict in the Middle East, there are concerns that Ukraine is losing importance on the West’s agenda.
Meanwhile, Zelensky announced in early February the dismissal of General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s top commander, marking the largest military reorganization since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion almost two years ago.
Next month’s Russian elections offer Putin even greater incentive to score a victory in Ukraine. The Kremlin leader is running for a fifth term and is expected to achieve a victory that will keep him in office until 2030.
Looking ahead to 2024, NATO allies fear that the Russian president will attempt a broader offensive following his expected victory in his country’s presidential election in March, an election that outside observers consider a mere formality.
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