Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russian forces would continue their offensive to advance deep into Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiyivka, a heavily fortified stronghold of the Ukrainian army, where the latter, the Kremlin leader said, “chaotically resigned”, Reuters and EFE reported , cited by Agerpres.

In a conversation with his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, broadcast by Russian media, Putin claimed that Ukraine’s new army chief, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, ordered his troops out of Avdiivka only after they began “running away”. in disarray,” leaving the wounded soldiers who are now in captivity, the head of the Kremlin assured that Russia would treat them “strictly in accordance with international conventions (…), in dignified conditions.”

But earlier, Ukraine appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the UN with a request to investigate the alleged execution of six wounded Ukrainian soldiers who were allegedly killed by Russian troops during surrender negotiations with them as a possible war crime.

“As for the general situation in Avdiivka, it is an absolute success. Congratulations. We must continue!” Putin told Minister Shoigu. “But the advance must be well prepared, supported by weapons, combat equipment and ammunition,” the Russian president also ordered.

On the other hand, Minister Shoigu stated that the Russian troops managed to eliminate the bridgehead created by the Ukrainian army last October on the left bank of the Dnieper, in the village of Krynka, Kherson region, on the southern front of Ukraine.

• Putin ridicules the “chaotic escape” of the Ukrainian army from Avdiivka / Moscow also announces a major offensive on the Dnieper

After the failure of a Ukrainian counter-offensive last summer, the Russian military went back on the offensive, taking advantage of ammunition and personnel shortages facing the Ukrainian military, while disputes in the US Congress halted US military aid to Ukraine and Kyiv struggled to mobilize new recruits to compensate for losses and troop rotation , exhausted by two years of war.

The Ukrainian industrial city of Avdiyivka, once home to 32,000 people, was captured by Russian forces on Saturday, marking President Vladimir Putin’s biggest victory in Ukraine since the capture of Bakhmut, another Donetsk city, last spring.

• VIDEO What the city of Avdiyivka looks like after “liberation” by Russian troops / Official photos of Moscow

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