Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from the beleaguered frontline city of Avdiivka to avoid being encircled, new military chief Oleksandr Syrsky said Saturday (17 February), handing Russia its biggest symbolic victory following Kyiv’s failed summer counter-offensive.

Russia has been trying to capture Avdiivka for months. It is the most significant territorial gain for Russian forces since they seized the eastern city of Bakhmut last May and comes ahead of the second anniversary of the start of the invasion.

“I decided to withdraw our units from the city and switch to defence on more favourable lines,” Syrsky said on Facebook.

“Our soldiers performed their military duty with dignity, did everything possible to destroy the best Russian military units and inflicted significant losses on the enemy,” Syrsky said.

This is the first major decision by Syrsky since his appointment on 8 February and he said it was taken to preserve the lives of soldiers and prevent their encirclement.

Ukraine is facing mounting pressure on the eastern front because of ammunition shortages, with a possible $60 billion package of US military aid held up in Washington since last year due to wrangling in Congress.

General Oleksandr Tarnavsky, who commands the Avdiivka area, said he had withdrawn from the city to “move to defence on more favourable lines”.

“In a situation where the enemy is advancing over the corpses of their own soldiers with a ten-to-one shelling advantage, under constant bombardment, this is the only right decision,” he said on Telegram.

“Encirclement was prevented, personnel were withdrawn, and our soldiers took up defence at the designated lines.”

Before issuing orders to pull out of Avdiivka, Tarnavsky on Friday said several Ukrainian soldiers had been captured by Russian forces.

The battle for the industrial hub, less than 10 kilometres north of the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk, has been one of the bloodiest of the two-year war.

Many compare it to the battle for Bakhmut, in which tens of thousands of soldiers were killed.

Security pacts

Avdiivka had around 34,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion. Most of the city has been since destroyed but around 1,000 residents remain, according to local authorities.

The city has important symbolic value, and Moscow hopes its capture will make Ukraine’s bombing of Donetsk more difficult.

Avdiivka lies in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, which the Kremlin has claimed to be part of Russia since a 2022 annexation that remains unrecognised by nearly all United Nations members.

It briefly fell in July 2014 into the hands of pro-Russian separatists led by Moscow, before returning to Ukrainian control and remaining so despite the invasion and its proximity to the separatist capital Donetsk.

After the failure of Kyiv’s counter-offensive in the summer, Russian forces went on the attack, facing a Ukrainian army struggling to replenish its ranks and running low on ammunition.

The fall of Avdiivka comes as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is on a tour of Europe to secure desperately needed military aid.

Zelenskyy on Friday signed bilateral security pacts with France and Germany to lock in support for Kyiv in its battle against Russia.

Both accords include military assistance and security arrangements.

With the Ukraine war about to enter its third year, Zelenskyy is set to make further pleas for financing and armaments at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, where leaders such as US Vice President Kamala Harris have gathered.

Meanwhile, Republicans in the US House of Representatives are blocking the authorisation of $60 billion in new military aid for Ukraine.

A research institute that monitors assistance estimated Friday that the European Union will have to double its military support to Ukraine to fill a gap left by the United States.

“It is highly uncertain whether the US will send further military aid in 2024,” the Germany-based Kiel Institute said in a report.

Europe must double Ukraine aid if US turns off the taps – Kiel Institute report

The EU will have to double its military support to Ukraine to fill a gap left by the United States after months of blockage of new aid by Congress, an authoritative research institute that monitors Western assistance to Kyiv said on Friday.

According to its most recent data, the United States sent €42.2 billion ($45.4 billion) in military aid to Ukraine between February 2022 and December 2023, at a rate of around two billion euros a month.

The European Union and its 27 members have promised €49.7 billion of military aid since the start of the war, but have so far delivered or earmarked just €35.2 billion.

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