Ukraine ordered a complete evacuation from the devastated city of Avdiivka before dawn on Saturday, surrendering positions that had been military strongholds for the better part of a decade as Russian aggression waned.
“Based on the operational situation around Avdiivka, in order to avoid a siege and protect the lives and health of our military personnel, I have decided to withdraw my troops from the city and move to defense on more favorable fronts,” the head of the Ukrainian military said. General Oleksandr Shirsky said. the commander said in a statement issued overnight.
The fall of Avdiivka, once home to some 30,000 people but now a smoking ruin, is the first major military victory for Russian forces since May last year. After rebuffing Ukrainian counterattacks in the summer and fall, Russian forces have been on the offensive in recent weeks along nearly the entire length of the 600-mile front.
The withdrawal of Ukrainian troops on Saturday came after a bloody final battle that was the heaviest fighting in the two-year war. Relying on its superiority in manpower and weapons, Russia attacked the city with airstrikes and ground attacks, even as its fighters suffered staggering casualties.
Outnumbered Ukrainian forces began withdrawing from positions south of the city on Wednesday and have since fought a desperate battle to avoid encirclement of the city as Russian forces advance from multiple directions. As Russian bombers attacked Avdiivka, Ukraine said its military had targeted and shot down three Russian fighter jets.
The commander of Ukrainian forces in the south, Oleksandr Tarnavsky, said that given Russia's firepower advantage and the number of soldiers Russia was willing to commit to the battle, there was no other option but to withdraw.
“This is the only correct solution under constant artillery fire, when the enemy has a 10-to-1 artillery advantage and is advancing on the corpses of our own soldiers,” he said in a statement.
The commander said that there were losses in the Ukrainian army and that “at the final stage of the operation, under pressure from the enemy's superior forces, some Ukrainian military personnel were taken prisoner.”
Even if the Ukrainian military front were stabilized behind Avziivka, the city's fall under Russian control would allow Moscow's forces to move troops and equipment more efficiently in the event of an invasion in other directions. It will be.
“Avziivka is a very important base in Ukraine's defense system,” said Mykola Bielieskov, a military analyst at the National Institute for Strategic Studies. That's because it protects Pokrovsk, a Ukrainian military logistics base about 30 miles northwest. Ukraine said in an interview.
“Seizing Avdiivka may open an opening for Russia,” he said.
The soldiers, who requested anonymity in view of the ongoing military operation, were contacted by phone on Friday to describe their harrowing attempt to escape from the city. They described running through bombed-out buildings as shells roared around them and Russian troops approached from multiple directions.
“In one of the districts of the town, the fighters of the 3rd Independent Assault Brigade are completely surrounded, but they are trying to break through and are succeeding,” said Major Rodion Kudryashov, deputy commander of the assault brigade. Ta. Radio Liberty interview.
In interviews, some privately expressed concern that the call for a withdrawal came too late, while others posted candid accounts on social media of a dangerous and chaotic withdrawal.
Victor Biliac of the 110th Brigade, which has been defending the city for the past two years, spoke Thursday about the evacuation of the military post known as Zenit on the south side of the city.
Biliak, who uses the call sign Hentai, said his troops had no time to evacuate weapons or equipment, burn paper or lay mines to attack Russian forces, and make an orderly withdrawal. He said there was nothing left.
On Wednesday night, 10 men tried unsuccessfully to leave, police said. They had to advance in a gunfight, but then came under fire.
“Only three of the injured were able to return home,” Hentai wrote on Instagram. The next morning, he helped rescue one of the wounded soldiers, but during the day's dangerous maneuvers, he said, four more members of his unit were injured, including himself.
Troops made another attempt on Thursday night, and seriously injured people were told to wait until armored vehicles removed them.
“The groups left one by one,” Hentai wrote. Since he was still able to walk, he led the group outside without waiting for an evacuation vehicle.
“Visibility outside was zero. It was just survival. A kilometer across the field,” he wrote. “A pack of blind cats guided by drones. Enemy artillery. The road to Avdiivka is strewn with our corpses.”
Evacuation vehicles never arrived for the injured, he said. As the last group emerged from the bunker, he heard wounded soldiers over the radio asking about evacuation vehicles. The commander replied that no vehicles were coming and that the wounded should stay behind.
“He didn't know he was talking to an injured man,” Hentai wrote. “This conversation on the radio hurt us to the core.”
Although we could not independently confirm his or other accounts, the soldiers quoted in this article are known to be members of the Ukrainian military with a public presence on social media. The location of the scene shown in the video was confirmed by The News to be in Avdiivka. New York Times.
As the battle for Avdiivka intensified, Ukrainian military commanders fighting in the area were forced to ration ammunition, soldiers said. White House officials relied on a similar narrative to argue that Congress's failure to pass a new $60 billion military aid package directly hurt Ukrainians' fight on the ground.
Ukraine's government is also struggling to recruit and mobilize soldiers to fill a shortage after two years of often brutal fighting.
Avdiivka and surrounding areas have been on the front lines since Russian-backed militants seized territory in eastern Ukraine in 2014, but Russia stepped up its efforts to capture the city in October. They launched a large-scale attack that surrounded a wide area.
Those attempts were largely unsuccessful and resulted in Russia's heaviest losses of the war, with tens of thousands of soldiers killed or injured, according to Ukrainian military, British and American officials.
Earlier this year, Russian troops successfully penetrated the city of Avdiivka itself, at which point losses on the Ukrainian side began to increase significantly. At the same time, Russia intensified its shelling of the city and sought to shatter Ukraine's heavily fortified defenses.
As the situation became increasingly dire, military analysts inside and outside Ukraine feared that the leadership would repeat what many saw as past mistakes. This meant holding out even after it became clear that all hope was lost, needlessly wasting men and weapons.
The evacuation from Avdiivka was still underway Saturday morning under heavy Russian artillery fire. The Ukrainian military command said the withdrawal from the southern part of the city was carried out with “minor losses.”
But the soldiers post video Information on social media provided a window into how dangerous travel in the area has become. In one video, several Ukrainian soldiers are seen atop an armored vehicle just half a mile from the landmark Avdiivka coking chemical plant on the city's northwestern edge.
They drove past a sign at the entrance to the city that read “Avdiivka is Ukraine,'' which became famous in December when President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted a selfie from it. After a few seconds, the soldiers crouched down, grimacing. A shell landed close to them, raising a cloud of dust and dirt.
On Friday, the commander of the 2nd Mechanized Battalion of the 3rd Assault Brigade said that Russian forces used incendiary devices. Ignite a tank storing dangerous fuel at a coke factory.
“The combustion of this toxic material has extremely serious consequences for the health and lives of combatants,” he said in a statement. Winds blew plumes of toxic black smog into the sky above the city, seeping into factories long used by Ukrainians as a stronghold against Russian advances.
It was unclear early Saturday whether Ukrainian troops barricaded at the factory had also left.
Volodymyr Kulaev, a soldier stationed at a vast Soviet-era industrial factory, said his unit was ordered to evacuate.
“We are withdrawing from the coke plant,” Hulaev said in a post on TikTok. “Everything is being targeted. It's hard to know where it's going. Hello everyone who knows me. I don't know if it's going to work out.”
Oleksandr Chubuko I contributed a report from Kharkiv, Ukraine. Malachy Brown Originally from Limerick, Ireland.
