Russia's
President Vladimir Putin listens to Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu
during a meeting in Moscow, Russia February 20, 2024. Sputnik/Alexander
Kazakov/Pool via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
Putin says Russia will push further into Ukraine after 'chaotic' fall of Avdiivka
MOSCOW,
Feb 20 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday Russian
troops would push further into Ukraine to build on their success on the
battlefield after the fall of the town of Avdiivka where he said
Ukrainian troops had been forced to flee in chaos.
The
town, which once had a population of 32,000, fell to Russia on
Saturday, Putin's biggest battlefield victory since Russian forces
captured the city of Bakhmut in May 2023.
Television footage released by Russia's defence ministry showed that almost every house in Avdiivka had been branded with war.
Putin
said on Tuesday the Ukrainian order to withdraw from the town had been
announced after Ukrainian troops had already begun to flee in chaos. He
said that all captured Ukrainian soldiers should be accorded their
rights under international conventions on prisoners.
"As
for the overall situation in Avdiivka, this is an absolute success, I
congratulate you. It needs to be built on," Putin told Defence Minister
Sergei Shoigu in the Kremlin.
"But
that development must be well-prepared, provided with personnel,
weapons, equipment and ammunition," Putin said. "It seems to be
self-evident, but nevertheless I draw your attention to it."
Ukrainian
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNN that Avdiivka would not have
fallen had Kyiv received weapons held up by the U.S. Congress' failure
to approve a large aid package.
"We
wouldn't (have lost) Avdiivka if we had all the artillery ammunition
that we needed to defend it. Russia does not intend to pause or
withdraw...Once Avdiivka is under their control, they undoubtedly will
choose another city and begin to storm it," Kuleba said.
Ukrainian
troops, he said, were "making miracles...but the reason they have to
sacrifice themselves and die is that someone is still debating a
decision. I want everyone to remember that every day of debate in one
place means another death in another place."
The
U.S. Senate this month passed a $95 billion aid package that includes
funds for Ukraine, but House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson has
declined to bring it up for a vote on the floor of the House.
MONTHS OF FIGHTING
Ukraine
said it withdrew its soldiers to save them from being fully surrounded
after months of fierce fighting. The Ukrainian military said there had
been casualties, but that the situation had stabilised somewhat after
the retreat.
Each side said the other had suffered huge losses.
After
the failure of Ukraine to pierce Russian front lines in the east and
south last year, Moscow has been trying to grind down Ukrainian forces
just as Kyiv ponders a major new mobilisation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appointed a new commander last week to run the war.
Putin
sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022,
triggering full-scale war after eight years of conflict in eastern
Ukraine between Ukrainian forces on one side and pro-Russian Ukrainians
and Russian proxies on the other.
Avdiivka,
called Avdeyevka by Russians, has endured a decade of conflict. It
holds particular symbolism for Russia as it was briefly taken in 2014 by
Moscow-backed separatists who seized a swathe of eastern Ukraine, but
was then recaptured by Ukrainian troops who built extensive
fortifications.
Avdiivka
sits in the industrial Donbas region, 15 km (9 miles) north of the
Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Donetsk. Before the war, Avdiivka's
Soviet-era coke plant was one of Europe's biggest.
Shoigu
said Russian forces had also taken control of the village of Krynky in
Ukraine's southern Kherson region. Ukraine's southern military command
said its troops had held their positions on the left bank of the River
Dnipro and that Russian attacks were unsuccessful.
Neither side gives death tolls for the war.
Reporting by Reuters; editing by Andrew Osborn, Ron Popeski and Mark Heinrich