Russian President Vladimir Putin is receiving real-time reports from Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov on the development of the offensive near Avdeyevka, a former Ukrainian stronghold north of Donetsk, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.
"The commander-in-chief [Putin] receives reports in real time," Peskov said.
At the moment, the defense minister and the chief of the general staff report to the president that Russian units are developing the offensive and preventing the enemy from gaining a foothold on new borders, Peskov added.
"The offensive is under way," the spokesman said.
Putin received the first report from Shoigu and Gerasimov on the near-completion of the operation to liberate Avdeyevka at 4 am on February 17 (01:00 GMT), the spokesman said. At 11 am, they reported again to tell the president that the operation was "factually complete."
"At that moment, the enemy had already begun to flee Avdeyevka en masse, abandoning their fighting positions. It took a few more hours for our fighters to start clearing the city," Peskov said, adding that the final report on the complete takeover of Avdeyevka by Russian forces was received in the second half of the day.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Russian forces moved almost 9 kilometers deep into Ukrainian positions during the capture of Avdeyevka.
"On February 17, in the course of offensive operations, units of the Center grouping of forces completely liberated the town of Avdeyevka in the Donetsk People's Republic and advanced to a depth of 8.6 kilometers," the ministry said.
The total area of the liberated territory amounted to 31.75 square kilometers and the enemy lost more than 1,500 soldiers, the ministry said.
On Saturday, Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky announced the decision to withdraw troops from Avdeyevka. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the decision to pull out the troops had been made to "save people's lives." Later, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the Russian military had taken full control of the city of Avdeyevka.