Partial Withdrawal From 'Operationally Significant' City of Avdeyevka Confirmed by Ukrainian General

Ukrainian command confirmed on Friday that troops were being withdrawn from the Zenit fortified area in southern Avdeyevka, several hours after announcing a "maneuver of forces" in the ruins of the city.

"We held this position as long as it was possible to effectively contain and destroy the enemy," Tavria Group of Troops commander General Oleksandr Tarnavsky told local media, assuring that the decision to withdraw was made to avoid wasting soldiers and to "improve the operational situation."

"Right now the regrouping of troops, the replenishment of supplies and arrangement of units in new positions is underway. A planned reinforcement of units is taking place," Tarnavsky said.

Earlier, Ukrainian 3rd Separate Assault Brigade commander Andriy Bletsky complained that Ukrainian forces were being "forced to fight 360 degrees against more and more brigades that the enemy brings in," with his forces pointing to a "threatening and unstable" situation in the city.

The Zenit fortified area is situated on Avdeyevka’s southern outskirts, between the villages of Spartak and Opytnoye, both now controlled by Russian forces. Construction of an intricate network of fortifications in the city began in 2015. Nearby is another fortified area nicknamed Cheburashka, whose liberation was reported on by Russian forces earlier in the day on Friday.

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A Ukrainian trooper from the 110th Brigade told local media that there was no centralized effort to evacuate troops from Avdeyevka, with forces surrounded by Russian units forced to break out on their own, suffering heavy casualties.

Tarnavsky announced earlier in the day that a "troop maneuver" was taking place, and that "new positions" and "powerful fortifications continue to be prepared."

Commenting on the situation in Avdeyevka earlier this month, senior Zelensky advisor Mykhailo Podolyak admitted that the settlement has real, strategic significance for Russia.

"Avdeyevka is important for them to control the space around Donetsk, you have control of dominant heights there, and they can build logistics corridors to supply a large area of the front," Podolyak said. "This is not about symbolism, this is about the operative importance of a particular territory," he added, deflecting potential criticism of Zelensky for leaving troops to die in the city despite no hope of victory in the face of a Russian advance.

US media reporting on a "partial withdrawal" from Avdeyevka on Thursday, with White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby saying the situation in the city was "critical, with the Russians continuing to press Ukrainian positions every single day."

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"Avdeyevka is at risk of falling under Russian control. In very large part this is happening because Ukrainian forces on the ground are running out of artillery ammunition," Kirby said, attempting to tie the battlefield situation to the $61 billion in Ukraine assistance proposed by the White House that’s currently struck in Congress.

"Russian forces are now reaching Ukrainian trenches actually in Avdeyevka, and are beginning to overwhelm Ukrainian defenses. The cost of inaction by the Congress is stark, and it’s being borne on the shoulders of Ukrainian soldiers. We need Congress to pass the national security supplemental bill without further delay. If House Republicans do not act soon, what is happening in Avdeyevka right now could very well happen elsewhere along that front," Kirby warned.

Situated in the heart of Donetsk, Avdeyevka became the scene of battles between Ukrainian forces and Donbass militias beginning in 2014, after Kiev launched a punitive military operation against local forces seeing independence from Ukraine following the February 2014 Euromaidan coup. The town’s pre-war population of 37,000+ dropped dramatically amid the fighting, shrinking to as little as 1,000 people as residents fled, with much of the city leveled into a smoldering, Stalingrad-like wasteland of ruins amid battles between Ukrainian and Russian forces complemented by the heavy use of artillery.

President Putin identified Avdeyevka as a key priority for Russian forces in late January, with Moscow pointing to the city’s use as a key staging area for attacks against the Russian-held portion of Donetsk People’s Republic, including using artillery to shell residential areas of the city of Donetsk – which is situated just 5 km south of Avdeyevka.