The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, called the decision to withdraw Ukrainian troops from Avdiyivka to prevent them from being encircled correct. According to him, since October, the Defense Forces have been depleting the resources of the Russians there, and they have accomplished their task — the occupiers have lost tens of thousands of soldiers.
He stated this at the Munich Security Conference.
"Keeping soldiers is protection," the president emphasized and added that weapons help to restore justice, but these weapons are held by the military, and it is he who liberates territories and protects people.
"Therefore, the decision is correct. In order not to get surrounded, they decided to move to other frontiers. This does not mean that people went out for some kilometers, and Russia captured something. She did not capture anything. We must understand with you: Russia tried to do something in the east during the two years of the war. What is something — they just destroyed several cities, towns. But the biggest thing they did was ruin our lives,” he said.
Zelenskyi noted that Russia began its offensive in October 2023, and since then the occupiers attacked Avdiivka with all the weapons they had. According to the president, Russia lost tens of thousands of its soldiers in Avdiivka.
Ukraine did not have enough weapons, he added.
"There is no long-range failure. Russia has it, but we have very little of it. This is the whole truth," he said
- The decision to withdraw the Defense Forces of Ukraine from Avdiyivka was announced on February 17 by the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi. He explained that he was guided by the need to preserve the lives of Ukrainian soldiers. Russian troops have been trying to seize Avdiivka since 2014, when Russia, having launched a war against Ukraine, occupied Crimea and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.