Ukraine's army chief says forces have pulled out of frontline city to 'avoid encirclement'

The head of Ukraine’s army has announced his forces are retreating from the frontline city of Avdiivka.

A Ukrainian takes cover in front of a burning building in Avdiivka in March 2023. File pic: AP

Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s newly appointed commander-in-chief, says military bosses have taken the decision to “avoid encirclement” and “preserve the lives and health of servicemen”.

A damaged block of flats in Avdiivka, pictured in November last year. Pic: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/Serhii Nuzhnenk

“Based on the operational situation around Avdiivka, in order to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of servicemen, I decided to withdraw our units from the city and move to defence on more favourable lines,” he said in a post on social media.

A view shows residential buildings heavily damaged by Russian military in Avdiivka, pictured in November 2023. Pic: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/Serhii Nuzhnenk

He said that, despite the withdrawal, Ukrainian soldiers had inflicted “significant losses on the enemy” in terms of manpower and equipment during the battle for the city, located on the outskirts of the eastern city of Donetsk.

The retreat – one of the most significant changes to the frontline since Russia’s capture of Bakhmut in May last year – comes after weeks of intensified fighting in the city.

Russian forces have been trying to advance on the town since October and have surrounded it on three sides, leaving limited resupply routes for the Ukrainian troops dug in there.

Nearly two years after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, capturing the eastern city is viewed as key to Moscow’s aim of securing full control of the two provinces that make up the industrial Donbas region.

Ukraine’s president visited Avdiivka in December last year. Pic: AP

The city, once home to around 30,000 residents but now thought to have a population of just over 1,000 people, is located to the north of Donetsk.

It was home to a large industrial facility producing chemicals and the coal-based fuel known as coke, but the plant has been largely destroyed in the fighting, according to its owners.

According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the capture of Avdiivka “does not offer avenues for operationally significant advances” in eastern Ukraine.

However, the ISW says it is likely Russia will attempt to “complicate or prevent” the Ukrainian withdrawal “in hopes of inflicting operationally significant losses on Ukrainian forces in the area”.

Click to subscribe to Ukraine War Diaries wherever you get your podcasts

Russia has signalled that the space arms race is on

Russian warship ‘destroyed off Crimean coast’

On Friday, in a post on Telegram, the commander of Ukraine’s southeastern sector Oleksandr Tarnavskyi said units were removed from the city with minor losses.

“In a difficult battlefield situation, when only ruins and a pile of broken bricks remain from the fortification, our priority is to save the soldiers’ lives,” he said.

One of Ukraine’s most prominent fighting units, the Third Assault Brigade, had recently been rushed to Avdiivka to reinforce troops there.

The brigade described the situation in the city as “hell” and “threatening and unstable”, but that it had conducted a raid against Russian forces in parts of the town and inflicted heavy casualties.

It comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday signed a 10-year security agreement with France – hours after he agreed a similar deal with Germany.

The agreement provides an additional package worth €3bn (£2.56bn) in military aid this year, the largest annual amount France has given to Ukraine since the war began.