The Latest Photos From Ukraine View All 91 Images"The Ukrainian military has established itself on new lines of defence and is successfully repelling attempts by the Russian invaders to develop an offensive," Brigadier-General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi wrote on Telegram messenger. The capture of Avdiivka pushes Ukrainian forces further from the Russian-held bastion city of Donetsk, an important logistics hub used by Moscow to support its operations across partially-occupied eastern Ukraine, a region known as the Donbas. Serhiy Zgurets, director of the Kyiv-based Defence Express consultancy, predicted Russian forces would try to "straighten out" the front line around Mariinka and launch a fresh push around the town of Vuhledar, which is held by Kyiv. Pavel Mogila, commander of an armoured unit in a Russian militia force fighting for Ukraine, said they helped evacuate forces from the city using three vehicles. Moscow unilaterally declared it had annexed the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in 2022 despite not fully controlling any of them.

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Persons: Pavel Polityuk, Tom Balmforth, Avdiivka's, Republicans scupper, rearm, Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, Dmytro Lykhoviy, Avdiivka, Serhiy Zgurets, Zgurets, Chasiv Yar, Vladimir Putin, Maksym Zhoryn, Pavel Mogila, Taran, Oleh, Putin, Yuliia Dysa, Peter Graff Organizations: Tom Balmforth KYIV, Kremlin, U.S, Republicans, Ukrainian, Defence Express, Kyiv, Third Assault Brigade, 110th Brigade Locations: Avdiivka, Russia, Bakhmut, Mariinka, Kyiv, Russian, Donetsk, Moscow, Ukraine, Vuhledar, Chasiv, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia