The new head of the Ukrainian armies said he wanted to “avoid an encirclement” and indicated that Ukrainian troops were moving towards “more favorable lines”.
In a short statement posted on Facebook early Saturday, the new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said he had made the decision to avoid encirclement and “preserve the life and health of military personnel”.
He added that Ukrainian troops were moving towards “more favorable lines”.
_”Our soldiers performed their military duty with dignity, did everything possible to destroy the best Russian military units, inflicted significant losses on the enemy in terms of manpower and equipment._We are taking measures to stabilize the situation and maintain our positions.”we can read in the declaration.
In recent days, there have been reports of a deterioration in the situation for Ukrainian troops in Avdiivka, after four months of resistance.
Heavily fortified by a network of tunnels and concrete fortifications, Avdiivka lies in the northern suburbs of Donetsk. According to the region’s governor Vadym Filashkin, there are fewer than 1,000 residents left in the town which had around 31,000 before the war. Today it is nothing more than an empty shell, destroyed by bombing.
According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the capture of Avdiivka is more of a symbolic victory for the Kremlin and will not bring significant changes to the 1,500-kilometer front line which has virtually no not changed in recent months.