He also said that he spoke about this situation with the US President.
Ukraine will definitely return Avdeevka to the Donetsk region. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky expressed confidence in this.
He made this statement in a commentary to Inter on the sidelines of the Munich conference. Zelensky noted that he had a conversation with US President Joe Biden. According to him, the American leader recognizes that the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Avdiivka, Donetsk region, is the result of weakening assistance to Ukraine with weapons.
“We want to save the lives of our guys. I am glad that the military command has such a correct, informed decision. (…) We will return everything. We will not give anything to these killers, I am sure of that,” Zelensky added.
Withdrawal of troops from Avdeevka
On February 17, the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Alexander Syrsky, announced that a decision had been made to withdraw Ukrainian troops from Avdiivka. He noted that the defenders did everything possible to destroy the best Russian military units, and also inflicted significant losses on the invaders – both in manpower and equipment.
In the evening, a representative of the Third Separate Assault Brigade (3 OSBr) Alexander Borodin said that the withdrawal of troops was still ongoing. According to him, such operations are often more complex than conducting assaults.
The 3rd Brigade says that since the brigade was redeployed to Avdeevka, the enemy has suffered considerable losses – in particular, more than 1,500 killed and more than 3,500 wounded.
