Russia's capture of Avdiivka is its most significant advance since its troops seized Bakhmut in May 2023. Here's what experts say it means.
Just a week out from the Russia-Ukraine war entering its third year, battlelines were redrawn around one of Ukraine's eastern cities. Ukrainian troops withdrew from Avdiivka allowing Russian troops to move in. It was Russia's largest battlefield gain in nine months and came after one of the most intense battles of the war.
Charles Miller, senior lecturer in politics and international relations at Australian National University, explained Avdiivka “is a little bit of Ukrainian held territory which was sticking out like a kind of a peninsula into Russian territory". He said that, essentially, the Ukrainians had withdrawn to "ensure that their forces defending the city don't get caught, surrounded and wiped out by the Russians".
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