Ukraine Withdraws From Besieged City as Russia Advance

Isabel Coles

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Russian forces raised their flag over the eastern city of Avdiivka after Ukraine’s top military commander ordered his outgunned troops to withdraw, giving Moscow its first major gain in months.

Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy said early Saturday that he was pulling back troops to better defensive lines in order to prevent encirclement and preserve lives. Russian forces had pushed rapidly into the city in recent days as Ukraine’s lack of artillery ammunition hamstrung efforts to hold the invaders back. The Biden administration said the fall of Avdiivka was the price for Congress’s failure to send further military aid to Ukraine.

Russia’s capture of Avdiivka following a monthslong assault represents the biggest victory for President Vladimir Putin since his forces seized the eastern city of Bakhmut in May 2023. Moscow has retaken the initiative in the war as Ukraine is short on personnel and military equipment after a failed counteroffensive last year.

Russian military bloggers posted images of their flag hoisted over the local administration building and the sprawling Avdiivka Coke Plant, which had been a bastion for Ukrainian forces in the city.

Ukraine is short on personnel and military equipment, hindering its ability to defend areas such as Avdiivka. PHOTO: LIBKOS/GETTY IMAGES

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that the risk of encirclement prompted the decision to withdraw.

“It’s an absolutely logical, justified and professional decision to preserve the maximum number of Ukrainians,” he said at the Munich Security Conference, a global security and foreign-policy forum.

Control over the city puts Russia closer to its strategic aim of seizing all of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions. But the slow pace of the Russian advance and the heavy cost in lives and armored vehicles have given Ukrainian officials confidence that Russian forces lack the tactical coordination and quality personnel needed for a major breakthrough.

Zelensky said Saturday that Ukrainian troops needed more weapons, particularly long-range strike weapons and air-defense systems, to combat Russian attacks. Russia, he said, was advancing by destroying buildings and showing disregard for its own soldiers’ lives.

“There are not enough weapons,” Zelensky said.

Ukraine sent reinforcements including the powerful 3rd Assault Brigade this week in a deployment apparently aimed at securing the retreat. Maksym Zhorin, the deputy commander of the 3rd Assault Brigade, on Saturday said the withdrawal from Avdiivka was ongoing.

“But it is extremely difficult to implement. The situation in general is difficult in this direction; very difficult battles await us,” he said.

Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, commander of Ukrainian forces fighting in the southeast, said Russian troops had captured “a certain number” of Ukrainian soldiers during the retreat.

A Ukrainian military medic treating a soldier who was wounded along the front line near Avdiivka. PHOTO: JOSEPH SYWENKYJ FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The Russian gains demonstrate the enormous challenge Kyiv would face against its larger neighbor without further U.S. support for Kyiv. The Senate this week passed a new aid package containing about $60 billion related to Ukraine, overcoming objections from Republican lawmakers. But the bill faces a further hurdle in the GOP-run House.

Vice President Kamala Harris discussed the political deadlock with Zelensky in Munich on Saturday.

“This is the cost of Congressional inaction,” said National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson. “It is critical that the House approve additional Ukraine funding without delay so that we can provide Ukraine with the artillery ammunition and other critical equipment they need to defend their country.”

Zelensky said he would be prepared to accompany former President Donald Trump, whose influence in the Republican Party is widely seen as having eroded support for Ukraine, to visit the front lines and show him what was happening.

For every 10 artillery shells fired by Russia, Ukraine can respond with only one, according to a Ukrainian commander. PHOTO: LIBKOS/GETTY IMAGES

The decision to withdraw from Avdiivka contrasts with the battle for Bakhmut, when Ukrainian forces held out for as long as possible, taking heavy losses that depleted Kyiv’s army ahead of the counteroffensive. Syrskiy, who was criticized over that strategy when he commanded defense of that city, was promoted to commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces last week.

“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,” Syrskiy said. “The lives of military personnel are the most valuable thing.”

Ukrainian forces began pulling out of the city this week, withdrawing from a military base in the south where they were at risk of being cut off by Russian forces. “We held this position as long as it allowed us to effectively deter and destroy the enemy,” said Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, commander of Ukrainian forces fighting in the southeast.

Ukrainian soldiers said they were suffering from acute shortages of ammunition. For every 10 artillery shells fired by Russia, Ukraine can respond with only one, Tarnavskiy said. Soldiers sometimes hold fire even when Russian soldiers are in their sights in order to preserve ammunition.

Another huge challenge is Russia’s intensive use of guided aerial bombs against which Ukraine has little protection, soldiers say.

“These bombs completely destroy any position,” said Zhorin, adding that Russia was dropping between 60 and 80 of them a day. He described the battle for Avdiivka as “many times more hellish” than Bakhmut.

Russia renewed its efforts to seize the city last fall as Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the south petered out. After failed assaults on the city using columns of tanks and armored troop carriers, the Russians changed tactics, sending waves of infantry forward in small groups.

Ukrainian troops had held off Russian attacks on Avdiivka since 2014. PHOTO: LIBKOS/GETTY IMAGES

The industrial city has long been a thorn in the side of Russian forces in eastern Ukraine. The fortified town forms a salient north of Donetsk city, limiting Russian control of the region. Ukrainian troops had held off Russian attacks since 2014, when Moscow launched a covert invasion of Ukraine’s east. Once home to more than 30,000, Avdiivka had seen its population dwindle to 1,400 by the time Russia intensified its campaign for the city last fall.

On a recent day outside the city, Ukrainian soldiers talked of exhaustion and falling morale.

“Everybody is tired and they don’t know what will happen in the next few minutes, let alone tomorrow,” said Nazar Filipchuk, an infantryman who has been in the army for two years.

Among soldiers’ complaints was a lack of time off and that brigades aren’t being rotated out of hot-spot areas, in the way that U.S. and European forces would move units out after a defined tour of duty.

Behind Avdiivka, Ukrainian engineers were building a series of antitank trenches, likely as a defensive line to fall back to.

Kate Vtorygina and Michael Gordon contributed to this article.