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Smoke rises from the Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant on February 15.
CNN
—
Ukrainian Armed Forces have announced they are withdrawing from the key town of Avdiivka.
The town, to the northwest of Donetsk city, has been the scene of some of the heaviest fighting of the war so far as Russia intensified its attacks in recent weeks.
“Based on the operational situation around Avdiivka, in order to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of servicemen, I decided to withdraw our units from the city and move to defense on more favorable lines,” Ukraine’s military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a Facebook post on Friday.
He said Ukrainian soldiers “did everything possible to destroy the best Russian military units and inflicted significant losses on the enemy in terms of manpower and equipment” in the area.
Ukraine is “taking measures to stabilize the situation and maintain positions,” he said, adding “the life of military personnel is of the highest value.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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