“In the Avdeyevka direction, units of the center grouping of forces liberated the village of Lastochkino and continued to improve the situation along the front line,” the ministry said in a statement.
The Russian military also repelled an attack in Rabotyno, while the Ukrainian forces lost up to 50 soldiers in the Kherson direction, the ministry added.
On February 17, Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky announced the decision to withdraw troops from Avdeyevka, a northern suburb of Donetsk. Volodymyr Zelensky said that the decision to pull out the troops had been made to "save people's lives." Later, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the Russian military had taken full control of the city of Avdeyevka.