Russian troops are launching several attacks in eastern Ukraine the day after Kiev forces withdrew from the industrial city as they try to advance beyond Avdiivka, the Ukrainian army said on Sunday.
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Facing growing shortages of soldiers and weapons and after months of fierce fighting, Ukraine announced its withdrawal from Avdiivka on Friday night, a major symbolic defeat a few days before the second anniversary of the Russian invasion.
“Significant Ukrainian forces” have established themselves in new positions near Avdiivka and are “ready” for Russian attacks, which “unfortunately are already underway,” the sector's military spokesman Dmytro Lykhoviy said on television Sunday.
According to him, “Russia is trying to actively develop its offensive in the Donetsk region.”
On Sunday, Ukrainian soldiers “repelled” 14 attacks near Lastochkyné, a small village less than two kilometers from the northern districts of Avdiïvka, and 23 more in the Mariïnka area, further south, General Oleksandr said in Telegram Tarnavsky, sector commander.
The Russian advance on Avdiivka, the most significant since May 2023, has increased pressure on the region's dwindling civilian population.
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Stay or evacuate?
In the village of Novooleksandrivka, which is located about thirty kilometers west of Avdiivka and is home to around 200 residents, 22-year-old Vadym has decided against evacuation for the time being despite “constant” Russian bombings.
“I hope this stops. And if it doesn't stop, we will try to leave,” he told AFP, referring to his wife and their child, who was born a week ago.
Avdiivka's ouster came at a time when Ukraine has been desperately waiting for months for a vote on crucial $60 billion in U.S. aid.
It was “a result of congressional inaction that led to Russia’s first significant (territorial) gains in months,” complained US President Joe Biden.
For his part, Vladimir Putin congratulated himself on Saturday on an “important victory” as his army claimed “total control” of Avdiivka, which was mostly in ruins.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it had progressed 8.6 kilometers in the capture of this city, which has been the target of very intense Russian attacks since October despite heavy losses.
The demise of this place, 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.
Avdiivka briefly fell into the hands of Moscow-led separatists in July 2014 before falling back under Ukrainian control. It lies just a dozen kilometers from Donetsk, the separatist “capital” that has escaped Kiev's control for a decade.
The Ukrainian armed forces admitted that soldiers had been captured during the withdrawal, without giving details.
Attacks in the south
On Sunday, the Ukrainian army-affiliated Telegram channel DeepState claimed that Russian forces likely shot six Ukrainian soldiers, including four wounded, in a position south of Avdiika on Thursday. The Ukrainian authorities have not yet commented on these allegations.
Kiev's ground troops, however, accused Russia of shooting two Ukrainian prisoners of war in the east, but outside the Avdiivka sector, on Sunday.
In the south of the country, the Ukrainian army also reported Russian attacks in the Zaporizhia region on Sunday.
According to General Tarnavsky, Kiev forces thus repelled 13 Russian “attack attempts” near the villages of Robotyné and Verbové, one of the rare places where the Ukrainians regained ground during their 2023 counteroffensive, which had largely failed.
Later, spokesman Dmytro Lykhoviy downplayed the severity of these attacks and asserted that Moscow did not have enough forces for a breakthrough.
“I would like to calm the panic a little (…) These are, in all likelihood, local attempts to target Robotyné,” he said on television, assuring that “the enemy has been kicked in the teeth and has fallen back is.”