Key Donbass city of Avdeevka liberated - Moscow | 17 Feb 2024 | Russian forces have "completely captured" the city of Avdeevka, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Saturday. Some 1,500 Ukrainian troops were killed as they retreated, leaving their weapons and equipment behind, the ministry said. The seizure moves the front line further away from the city of Donetsk, thereby shielding its civilian population from bombardment by Ukrainian forces. Situated around 20km away, Avdeevka had been fortified and used as a staging ground for such attacks since 2014. "Under the continuous fire of Russian troops, only individual scattered formations of Ukrainian militants" managed to escape the city, the ministry said, stating that Kiev had lost 1,500 men in the 24 hours before the city was liberated.