“In the Avdiivka region, Ukrainian soldiers repelled 14 attacks by the occupiers near Lastochkyne,” a small village located less than two kilometers from the northern districts of Avdiivka. Avdiivka in the Donetsk region said General Oleksandr Tarnavsky on Telegram. Further south, in the Mariinka area, Russian forces “attempted to break through the defenses of our troops 23 times,” he added, also pointing to Russian offensives in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
According to General Tarnavsky, Kiev forces repelled 13 Russian “attack attempts” near the villages of Robotyné and Verbové (Zaporizhzhia region), one of the rare places where the Ukrainians regained ground during their 2023 counteroffensive, which largely failed had won. “The enemy suffered significant losses in men and armored vehicles,” the commander assured.
Moscow congratulated itself on Saturday on an “important victory” by claiming “total control” of Avdiivka just days before the second anniversary of the start of its invasion.
On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have advanced 8.6 kilometers in the capture of this largely ruined city, which has been hit by very heavy Russian attacks since October despite heavy losses.
High symbolic value
In view of the growing shortage of soldiers and weapons, the Ukrainian army announced its withdrawal from Avdiivka on the night of Friday to Saturday. This was a “fair decision” to “save as many lives as possible,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.
The downfall of this city, which in recent days only had around 900 inhabitants, compared to around 34,000 before the war, has an important symbolic value for both camps.