>>51660
I think it's too late for a withdrawal now, not without accepting huge losses or not unless they can manage to launch a counter attack and open the route out back up.

Thinking about it, maybe this was never intentional but the Russian breakthrough in the north was underestimated and has now pushed too far for a Ukrainian withdrawal. I don't actually think anybody(in Ukraine) wants this as while yes it may tie up Russian forces for a while it will also end up like Mariupol rather than Bahkmut in that Russia is going to end up with large numbers of Ukrainian POWs.

In addition to that, it may not even tie Russian forces up as much as it did in Mariupol of Bahkmut anyway. Mariupol was quite urban and had Azovstal with it's labyrinths filled with supplies, Bahkmut was also more built up and had the Soledar mines. It seems that Avdiivka has some industrial facilities in the north but they are in the north and already separated form the rest of Avdiivka. It's not clear how much supply they have there either(I guess we will see).

As for EW. Maybe, but then also the fighting in Mariupol was mostly done by Chechens and in Bahkmut is was mainly Wagner. Both of which post far more material than the regular Russian army does which might be why not much drone footage(and other footage) is coming out.
And Ukraine probably would not post drone footage if it was showing things going badly for them, plus in Ukraine also there are certain units that are more liberal with footage than others.