Zelensky says Ukrainian withdrawal from Avdiivka 'logical' and 'just'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka after months of heavy fighting as a "logical, just and professional solution" to protect the lives of soldiers.

"That was the main task for us, we are protecting our people, our soldiers," Zelensky said on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference regarding his military's previous decision to abandon Avdiivka.

The new Ukrainian commander-in-chief, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, announced the order to withdraw from Avdiivka early on Saturday morning.

"Based on the operational situation around Avdiivka, in order to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of servicemen, I decided to withdraw our units from the city and move to defence on more favourable lines," Syrskyi wrote.

"Our soldiers performed their military duty with dignity, did everything possible to destroy the best Russian military units, inflicted significant losses on the enemy in terms of manpower and equipment," he wrote.

The Russian military did not initially comment on the changed front-line situation near Avdiivka. Russian troops have been trying to capture Avdiivka since October 2023, suffering heavy losses.

The former industrial city had been a Ukrainian outpost in the immediate vicinity of Donetsk, the Russian-controlled capital of the Donbass coal and steel region, since 2014. In recent days, the situation for the Ukrainian defenders there has become increasingly difficult.