The Ukrainian army is withdrawing from the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, which has been fought over for months. “Based on the operational situation around Avdiivka, in order to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of our servicemen, I decided to withdraw our units from the city and move to defend more favourable positions,” wrote the new Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksander Syrskyi on the X platform, formerly Twitter and Facebook early on Saturday morning.