On Saturday, the Ukrainian army announced the withdrawal of its forces from one of the key towns in the country Avdiivka. The city saw several fierce and strong battles in recent months.
The withdrawal of Ukraine came after the concentration of Moscow's attacks on the area including airstrikes and ground operations, according to CNN.
Avdiivka could be one of the biggest gains for Russia on the ground after Moscow captured the city of Bakhmut last year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the issue of the withdrawal from Avdiivka at the Munich Security Conference.
He said that the decision to pull back from Avdiivka was made to “save our soldiers’ lives.”
He added: “In order to avoid being surrounded, it was decided to withdraw to other lines. This does not mean that people retreated some kilometres and Russia captured something, it did not capture anything."
Avdiivka was among the front-line spots since seizing of large portions of the Donbas region, including the nearby city of Donetsk, in 2014.
The area was under fire since the launch of the Russian military operations in Ukraine in February 2022.
The withdrawal of the Ukrainian forces was described as “the only correct solution" by Ukraine’s commander of southern forces Oleksandr Tarnavskyi.
He added that some Ukrainian troops were captured by Russia during the process.
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