The Russian occupiers lost 17,000 servicemen killed during the offensive on Avdiivka, Donetsk region. On February 17, in an interview with the BBC, the spokesman of the operational and strategic group of troops "Tavria" Dmytro Lykhova said.
According to him, in total, the army of the Russian invaders lost 47,000 people in the battles for Avdiivka.
Lykhovi did not say anything about the losses of the Defense Forces in Avdiivka, but, according to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi, "for one Ukrainian death, there were seven Russian deaths."
- 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 capture Avdiivka since 2014, when Russia, having launched a war against Ukraine, occupied Crimea and part of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.