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Ukraine’s military has said outnumbered troops have been withdrawn from part of the eastern city of Avdiivka.

The decision comes as battles escalate in the region, but Ukraine insists the withdrawal from the southeastern part of the city provides no strategic advantage for Russia.

Speaking on Telegram, the commander of Ukraine’s southeastern sector Oleksandr Tarnavskyi said units were removed with minor losses.

“In a difficult battlefield situation, when only ruins and a pile of broken bricks remain from the fortification, our priority is to save the soldiers’ lives,” he said.

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One of Ukraine’s most prominent fighting units, the Third Assault Brigade, had recently been rushed to Avdiivka to reinforce troops there.

The brigade described the situation in the city as “hell” and “threatening and unstable”, but that it had conducted a raid against Russian forces in parts of the town and inflicted heavy casualties.

Why is the city important?

Russia is trying to encircle and capture Avdiivka nearly two years after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Kyiv’s foothold in the town appears increasingly shaky, with its supply lines threatened.

Russian forces have been trying to advance on the town since October and have surrounded it on three sides, leaving limited resupply routes for the Ukrainian troops dug in there.

Nearly two years after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, capturing the eastern city is viewed as key to Moscow’s aim of securing full control of the two provinces that make up the industrial Donbas region.

It would also hand Vladimir Putin a way to justify the war as he seeks re-election next month.

Zelenskyy calls for western support

It comes as Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a trip to western Europe today in a bid to press allies to continue to provide military support.

The Ukrainian president signed a bilateral security agreement with Germany, and is set to sign another with France later today.

Speaking in Berlin, Mr Zelenskyy said his troops are “heroically defending strategic points and logistic routes”.

“Regarding Avdiivka, the situation there has been ongoing for several days,” he said.

“We remember what Russia does with our cities and villages. They will not stop until they completely destroy everything living there.”

He added: “I know in detail what is happening. I am in contact with our military leadership. I will not speak about the new military approaches they are using.

“Their task is to do everything to protect our people above all else.”

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Earlier this week, the United States senate approved a $95bn foreign aid package which included $60bn in support for Ukraine.

White House spokesperson John Kirby said at the time that Avdiivka was at risk of falling to the Russians due to a lack of artillery ammunition.

Chelsea player Melanie Leupolz is a one-off in her team and a rarity in women’s professional sport. She’s a mum.

A mum who came back to her sport at an elite level after giving birth.

But the 29-year-old German international and Olympic gold medallist had to answer plenty of questions about her decision to take time out and start a family.

“At the beginning, I got some comments like how can you start a family at your prime time of being a footballer, why did you not wait until you retired?

“I didn’t listen, I knew what I wanted – a child and playing football as well – and everything was possible.”

And it was possible because Chelsea has a progressive attitude towards women’s health, helped no doubt by having a female coach in Emma Hayes, herself a mother, who also worked in women’s football in the US, where maternity leave among players is much more common.

“I told Emma straightaway for my safety and for the baby’s safety. So I was training with the team for four months but without any contact.

“They were careful about my heart rate and that I didn’t get the ball into my bump, but I was happy I could come to the training ground and see my teammates and be involved, and they didn’t know at that point.”

But she still had to take the best part of a year out from competitive football. Enough time to possibly lose your place, or to lose the focus you once had because of a change in priorities.

Leupolz says she doesn’t think it’s changed her hunger for the game but she admits she is different.

“You change a bit as a person because there’s a big other part of your life. Maybe you see football through different eyes and maybe that helps with the pressure and focus.

“But I still want to win everything! Two months after giving birth I was back with the team and travelling to winter camp. I was fully back in the squad and playing football, it’s amazing how quickly everything went.”

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She was lucky enough to be given a new contract before she left to have her son. So the financial worry was taken away.

Many women still putting off children until end of career

For many athletes in other sports, the financial burden of having a child, travelling the world for tournaments, and taking childcare with you is beyond the finances of all but the top female players.

It’s not surprising that many female athletes put off starting a family until after they’ve retired. Sport is an already short career, and so are the financial rewards.

The most decorated track athlete of all time with 10 Olympic medals, American sprinter Allyson Felix, famously found herself significantly financially worse off when she became pregnant in 2018.

Her sponsor Nike reduced her payments by 70%. She ended up dropping them.

She said: “Getting pregnant was known as the kiss of death for Olympic track and field athletes.”

The brand did not treat Serena Williams the same way when she announced her pregnancy after winning the Australian Open in 2017, but perhaps as (arguably) the greatest female player of all time, she had more marketing clout.

Williams also changed the Women’s Tour’s (WTA) maternity rules after speaking out about the lack of protection for female players and pregnancy.

Having been World Number One, Williams returned a year later with a daughter but ranked down at a lowly 451.

Women in tennis allowed to keep rank during maternity leave

Now players can protect their ranking for their first eight tournaments after having a baby, so they are not starting from scratch, drawing the new World Number One in the first round, with their previous good work still recognised.

But the main challenge for all but the top players in the world is the cost.

Players further down the rankings just don’t earn enough in winnings to support travelling week to week with a nanny.

That would mean paying for extra flights and an extra hotel room. The maths just doesn’t work.

British doubles player and Sky commentator Naomi Broady has struggled to go back to the sport she loves.

“It’s pretty impossible, I’d be totally reliant on what I’m earning on court, and then if a parent or my partner can’t travel with me it’s the cost of a nanny as well, so unless you’re earning serious top dollar then it’s just not achievable.”

Certainly becoming a mother seems less of a challenge if you are part of a team and have the backing of your club.

Leupolz admits she has had to make sacrifices and has had to think and plan a few steps ahead to make it work, like any other working mother in any other walk of life.

Attitudes to athletes starting families while still playing their sport are slowly changing.

But even she won’t be adding to her family until after she hangs up her boots.

US President Joe Biden has said he is “contemplating” steps to punish Moscow after he blamed Vladimir Putin and his “thugs” for the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Mr Biden said he was “outraged” but “not surprised” by the death of the prominent Putin critic as he joined other world leaders in saying the Kremlin should be held accountable.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described Mr Navalny as the “fiercest advocate for Russian democracy”, while Canadian leader Justin Trudeau said his passing is a reminder of “exactly what a monster Putin is”.

Mr Navalny had been serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges in Russia’s Polar Wolf penal colony north of the Arctic Circle.

Russian prison authorities said he died after feeling unwell following a walk on Friday.

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‘Putin is responsible’

Speaking at the White House after the reports emerged, Mr Biden paid tribute to a man he said “bravely” stood up to the Russian president’s “corruption” and “violence”.

Mr Biden continued: “Russian authorities are going to tell their own story.

“But make no mistake. Make no mistake. Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death.”

He added: “We don’t know exactly what happened, but there is no doubt that the death of Nalvany was a consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”

The White House is still seeking more information about Mr Navalny’s death, but the development has put a further chill into already frosty relations between Washington DC and Moscow.

Mr Biden had warned Mr Putin after they met in Geneva in June 2021 that Mr Navalny’s death would lead to devastating consequences for the Kremlin.

Asked what consequences Mr Putin will face, Mr Biden said at the White House on Friday: “That was three years ago, in the meantime they have faced a hell of a lot of consequences.”

He referenced sanctions Moscow has faced since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and the hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers who have been killed in the conflict.

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Mr Biden said he is “contemplating what else could be done”, but added that when he issued the warning in 2021 there were no sanctions already in place.

The US president also urged Republican hardliners in Congress to support additional funding to pay for more weaponry for Ukraine’s military nearly two years after the country was invaded by Russian forces.

He said: “History’s watching the House of Representatives. The failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten.”

The Russian president himself has not commented on Mr Navalny’s death, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Putin had been made aware of the development.

Mr Peskov, who said he could not reveal any details as to how Mr Navalny died, added that the reaction of Western leaders has been “unacceptable” and “absolutely rabid”.

Sunak, Macron and Scholz respond to ‘huge tragedy’

Among those world leaders was Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who said the jailed dissident’s death was “terrible news”.

“My thoughts are with his wife and the people of Russia, for whom this is a huge tragedy,” Mr Sunak said.

“As the fiercest advocate for Russian democracy, Alexei Navalny demonstrated incredible courage throughout his life,” he added.

Lord Cameron, the UK’s foreign secretary, said that Mr Navanly had “fought bravely against corruption” throughout his life.

He continued: “Putin’s Russia fabricated charges against him, poisoned him, sent him to an Arctic penal colony and now he has tragically died.

“Putin should be accountable for what has happened – no one should doubt the dreadful nature of his regime.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was “obvious” Mr Putin was responsible, adding that the Russian leader doesn’t care who dies so long as his position is secure.

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed “anger and indignation” over Mr Navalny’s death, adding that Russia is a place where “free spirits are put in the gulag and sentenced to death”.

He said the treatment of Mr Navalny shows the “weakness of the Kremlin and their fear of all opponents”.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Mr Navalny’s death makes clear “what kind of regime this is” and that he had “probably now paid for (his) courage with his life”.

EU says it will ‘spare no efforts’ to hold Kremlin to account

The European Union demanded Moscow immediately release all political prisoners after the death of Mr Navalny.

The Russian opposition leader was “slowly murdered” by Mr Putin, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and vice president Josep Borrell said in a joint statement.

“We will spare no efforts to hold the Russian political leadership and authorities to account,” they added.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the country’s CBC Radio that Mr Navalny was a “strong fighter for democracy, for freedoms for the Russian people”.

He added: “It really shows the extent to which Putin… will crack down on anyone who is fighting for freedom for the Russian people… It is a tragedy and it’s something that has the entire world being reminded of exactly what a monster Putin is.”

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Mr Navalny’s wife Yulia was at the Munich Security Conference in Germany when reports of her husband’s death emerged.

She said: “I don’t know whether to believe or not this terrible news that we only receive from Russian government sources… But if this is true, I want Putin and everyone around him to know that they will be held accountable for everything they did to our country, to my family. And this day will come very soon.”

Meanwhile, flowers have been laid at vigils for Mr Navalny in Russia and across Europe.

People gathered at the Wall of Sorrow, in Moscow, a memorial to victims of political repression under Joseph Stalin, while others laid flowers at a memorial for victims of political repression in St Petersburg.

Protesters have also gathered outside the Russian Embassy in central London.