Why the Chief Commander of Ukraine's Armed Forces Ordered Units to Withdraw from Avdiivka

The Chief Commander of Ukraine's Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, has ordered Ukrainian units to withdraw from Avdiivka, located 25 kilometers from Donetsk. This decision comes in response to the encirclement of Ukrainian military personnel at that location.

“Given the operational situation that has developed around Avdiivka, to avoid encirclement and to protect the lives and health of our servicemen, I have decided to withdraw our units from the city and transition to more favorable defensive lines,” Syrskyi wrote on Facebook.

Earlier, Ukrainian General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi stated that the personnel had already been withdrawn, and Ukrainian military forces had taken up defense at certain lines.

According to several Western media outlets, the withdrawal of troops from Avdiivka has become one of the reasons for the disagreements between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Valery Zaluzhnyi, who until early February was the Chief Commander of Ukraine's Armed Forces. Upon taking office, Syrskyi immediately reported on the extremely difficult situation in the Avdiivka direction.