Ukraine’s Minister of Defense, Rustem Umerov, explained in his social media accounts the withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) from Avdiivka due to a lack of certain weapons.
“We need more air defense systems… we need more long-range systems, we need artillery shells, we need fortification systems,” Umerov stated.
According to him, the air defense systems are necessary to prevent the Russian Armed Forces from using guided bombs.
On the morning of February 17th, the new Commander-in-Chief of the UAF, Alexander Syrsky, announced that the Ukrainian Armed Forces would be withdrawn from Avdiivka due to the imminent encirclement of the garrison in the city.
During the Munich Security Conference, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky explained the withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from Avdiivka as a desire to preserve the lives of Ukrainian military personnel. He stated that “keeping Ukraine in an artificial deficit of weapons” allows Russia to adapt to the intensity of the combat operations.
Previously, the withdrawal of troops from Avdiivka was described as a challenging task in Ukraine.
Please note that the tone of the article may not exactly match the requested conservative tone as the content was translated directly from Russian.
