The withdrawal of the Ukrainian army from the eastern city of Avdiyivka was the “correct” decision to “save as many lives as possible” as Ukrainian soldiers tried to resist the onslaught of Russian troops, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinsky said on Saturday, AFP reported.

“It was a professional decision to save as many lives as possible (…) it was the right decision,” the President of Ukraine emphasized at the Munich Security Conference in southern Germany.

The Ukrainian army retreated from the city of Avdiyivka, a city in the east of the country, where the situation has worsened significantly in recent days, Ukrainian General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of troops in the area, said, according to AFP.

“According to the received order, (we) retreated from Avdiivka to pre-prepared positions,” he wrote in Telegram.

This is Russia’s biggest symbolic victory since the failure of the counteroffensive on Kyiv last summer.

Army commander Oleksandr Sirskyi ordered the evacuation of the encirclement, the biggest change at the front since Russian troops captured the city of Bakhmut last May, The Guardian and News.ro reported.

In a Facebook post Saturday, Sirski said he acted to “protect the lives and health of the military,” stabilize the situation and move troops to more favorable defensive lines.