The retreat comes after more than four months of fighting for the front-line Ukrainian city and amid dire shortage of ammunition supplies for Kyiv.
Ukrainian troops on Saturday withdrew from the devastated eastern town of Avdiivka after a year-long battle, Kyiv’s new military chief said, all but handing a victory and key position to Russia.
The decision was made to save Kyiv’s troops fighting in the bombed-out town from being encircled by Russians, according to Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who took his post last week following a major reshuffling in military leadership.
“I decided to withdraw our units from the town and move to defense from more favorable lines in order to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of servicemen,” Syrskyi said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday backed his new military leader’s decision to withdraw and praised the troops for “exhausting” Russian troops in the front-line town.
Russia made several attempts to capture the city since October, eventually surrounding it on three sides and limiting the resupply routes for Ukrainian forces, according to AFP.
