Kyiv’s forces withdraw from Avdiivka – DW – 02/17/2024

Ukraine’s military says it was withdrawing its troops from Avdiivka after months of fierce Russian attacks.

The chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said he ordered the withdrawal to avoid encirclement.

“In a situation where the enemy is advancing over the corpses of their own soldiers with a ten-to-one shelling advantage, under constant bombardment, this is the only right decision,” he said.

“Encirclement was prevented, personnel were withdrawn, and our soldiers took up defense at the designated lines.” Syrskyi added.

It marks the most significant change on the front line since Russian troops seized the nearby town of Bakhmut.

Capturing the eastern city is key to Moscow’s aim of securing complete control of the two provinces that comprise the industrial Donbas region.

They have been trying to capture Avdiivka since October 2023, suffering heavy losses. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed off on an “ambitious” security deal Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. The deal will last 10 years and includes a French promise of up to €3 billion ($3.2 billion) in aid for 2024.

Earlier, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Zelenskyy signed a bilateral security agreement valued at €1.1 billion ($1.18 billion) to help in the fight against Russia’s invasion.

Also on Friday, the Germany-based Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) said the European Union would need to double its military funding to Ukraine to fill a gap left by a possible US withdrawal.

“It is highly uncertain whether the US will send further military aid in 2024,” the researchers said in a new report on the state of play of military, financial, and humanitarian aid to the war-battered country since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.

ss/lo (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)