A video published by the Ukrainian military on social media shows fierce fighting during the withdrawal from Avdiyivka, showing how an M1224 MaxxPro armored personnel carrier entered the city under heavy fire from Russian troops to evacuate part of the defenders.

The footage was captured by the crew of a MaxxPro mine-resistant armored vehicle (MRAP) as it left the city late last week, but has only now been released on social media. The USA handed over 200 M1224 machines to the Ukrainian military.

The video was shot by soldiers of the 3rd Airborne Assault Brigade, a unit of battle-hardened fighters that the Ukrainian military said last Thursday was redeployed to Avdiivka to try to stabilize the situation.

“Avdiyivka is hell on earth,” said the commander of the Ukrainian unit Andriy Biletskyi, adding that his soldiers had to “fight 360 degrees with new brigades mobilized by the enemy.”

The video, which was distributed by the fighters of the 3rd Airborne Assault Brigade, recorded several moments of combat operations, starting with the contact with Russian troops, the entrance to the city (01:36), the quick landing in the car of some Ukrainian defenders (min. 01:48) and past the coking plant to the northwest of the city (min. 02:11).

It was Ukraine’s largest coke plant until the war nearly two years ago, and some military analysts speculate that Ukrainian defenders may try to use it as a last-ditch defense, similar to the use of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol by Ukrainian marines and military personnel. “Azov” regiment in the spring of 2022.

The Russian army took control of the city of Avdiyivka

However, Russian forces announced on Monday that they had taken control of the plant as the military command in Kyiv decided to withdraw troops from Avdiivka, a city in Donetsk region that Moscow forces had been trying to capture since last October following a similar operation. the attempt failed in the spring of 2023.

On Saturday morning, the Ukrainian army announced that it withdrew its forces from Avdiivka to avoid encirclement.

“According to the received order, (we) withdrew from Avdiyivka to previously prepared positions,” the commander of Ukrainian troops in the area, General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, reported on Telegram, clarifying that the order was given by the new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, in order not to lose troops from the city .

The fall of Avdiivka is Russia’s biggest victory since it captured the city of Bakhmut in late May last year and comes almost two years after President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine.

On Saturday evening, Putin congratulated his troops on their victory.

“Vladimir Putin listened in the Kremlin to the report of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu regarding the capture of Avdiyivka. The president congratulated our soldiers and our fighters on this important victory,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmytro Peskov, quoted by Russian news agencies.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy considers the decision to withdraw troops from the city to be correct

A day later, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that its forces were in “full” control of the city, with the exception of a coke plant northwest of Avdiivka, which was also captured on Monday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi also spoke about the defeat near Avdiyivka, saying that leaving the city was the “correct” decision to “save as many lives as possible.”

General Sirsky, for his part, noted that he acted to “protect the lives and health of the military”, to stabilize the situation and transfer the troops to more advantageous lines of defense.

Ukraine’s military is facing a severe crisis of shells and other munitions as the latest military aid prepared by the White House for Kyiv remains blocked in Congress in Washington due to opposition from Republican congressmen in the House of Representatives, the lower house of the US legislature.

The US Senate approved the aid package last Tuesday after 3 months of negotiations, but it also needs the approval of the House of Representatives.

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