White House says Ukrainian Armed Forces withdraw from Donbass

According to Ria Novosti news agency, John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator at the US National Security Council, shared on ABC that the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Donbass are running out of ammunition and the Ukrainian army is retreating.

"Look, time is running out. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are running out of ammunition in Donbass and are retreating to the second and third lines of defense," said John Kirby, calling on NATO members to provide more support to Ukraine.

Earlier, in late February 2024, Mr. John Kirby said that Ukraine's decision to withdraw from the Avdeevka stronghold was not because the Ukrainians were not brave enough, nor because they were not well-led or trained, nor did they lack tactical acumen. It was because the US Congress did not act.

For months, Ukraine was able to hold off Russian attacks, until it began to run out of ammunition, especially artillery shells — which it needed to prevent Russian forces from reaching and overrunning its defenses, Kirby said.

For its part, Russia believes that supplying weapons to Ukraine hinders the resolution of the conflict, directly draws NATO countries into the conflict and is "playing with fire". Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that any shipment of goods containing weapons to Ukraine would become a legitimate target for Russia. According to him, the US and NATO are directly involved in the conflict, not only supplying weapons but also training personnel in the UK, Germany, Italy and other countries.

The Kremlin has said that supplying Ukraine with Western weapons will not help bring the parties to the negotiating table and will have a negative impact. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stressed that the West must stop supplying weapons to Ukraine if it really wants to move closer to ending the conflict./.