Russia hailed its capture of the devastated town of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine after Kyiv said it had withdrawn its forces from the area to save soldiers’ lives, and blamed its most significant loss in more nine months on dwindling arms supplies from the West.
The Kremlin said Russian president Vladimir Putin “congratulated Russian soldiers on this success, an important victory”, which is the first notable battlefield gain for Moscow’s forces since last May, when they took the ruined town of Bakhmut, 70km to the north.
The defence ministry in Moscow said its troops had taken full control of Avdiivka and “advanced for 8.6km” around the former industrial town on the outskirts of Donetsk, a large city that has been held by Russian-led militia groups since spring 2014.
Kyiv played down the loss of Avdiivka, arguing that it was now essentially destroyed and that Ukrainian troops had inflicted massive losses in troops and armour on Russia’s invasion force during about four months of intense fighting in the area.
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“We are preserving our people, our warriors, because this is what defence is all about,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said of the decision to abandon Avdiivka.
“We have to understand: Russia has been trying to do something in the east for two years of [full-scale] war. They have simply destroyed a few villages and towns,” he told the Munich Security Conference.
“Depleting their army – I believe that our military is constantly fulfilling this task . . . Then there will be recovery, they will wait for the proper weapons, which were simply insufficient,” he said, amid reports that Kyiv’s troops were massively outnumbered and outgunned in Avdiivka.
“We can get our land back. And Putin can lose. And this has already happened more than once on the battlefield . . . Unfortunately, keeping Ukraine in artificial deficits of weapons – particularly in deficits of artillery and long-range capabilities – allows Putin to adapt to the current intensity of the war.”
Ukrainian units are having to restrict their use of artillery while $60 billion (€56 billion) in US military aid remains blocked by US Republicans loyal to former president Donald Trump, who have rejected repeated White House calls to prioritise the issue.
“Ukraine’s military was forced to withdraw from Avdiivka after Ukrainian soldiers had to ration ammunition due to dwindling supplies as a result of congressional inaction,” the White House said after US president Joe Biden spoke to Mr Zelenskiy by telephone.
Mr Biden said following the call: “There’s so much on the line . . . The idea that now we’re running out of ammunition – to walk away, I find it absurd. I find it unethical. So I’m going to fight to get them the ammunition they need.”
Ukraine’s military said it repelled Russian attacks in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region over the weekend and shot down four of Moscow’s fighter planes. There was no confirmation from the Kremlin of such losses, although footage posted online seemed to show one burning aircraft spiralling to the ground in eastern Ukraine.
