Ukraine has pulled most of its troops out of Debaltseve, the president confirmed Wednesday. Dozens of troops were seen retreating and Russia-backed separatists reported taking hundreds of soldiers captive as they continued their onslaught on the strategic railroad junction in eastern Ukraine.
The army has withdrawn out 80 percent of its troops from the town and two more columns have yet to leave, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on his official Twitter account. He denied claims by the rebels that the Ukrainians were encircled and said the troops were leaving Debaltseve with their weapons and ammunition.
"Debaltseve was under our control, it was never encircled. Our troops and formations have left in an organized and planned manner," he said in televised comments.
CBC News correspondent Nahlah Ayed is in Eastern Ukraine with producer Tracy Seeley and cameraman Richard Devey. Ayed sent this report Wednesday as Ukrainian soldiers retreated from Debaltseve.
At times on the road to Debaltseve, it was a parade of military vehicles and ambulances: tanks, armoured personnel carriers, trucks. We even saw a broken down APC being towed by another towards a Ukrainian base near Artyomovsk. The air is thick with the smell of heavy machinery.
Some of the soldiers were waving Ukrainian flags and pumping their fists in the air. Others looked more sombre. As did those who arrived at the Artyomovsk medical clinic, seemingly fresh from battle. But the shelling, sometimes sustained, was still going on, and some of the Ukrainian heavy hardware was actually travelling towards Debaltseve—suggesting some fighting was still going on. But clearly so far this is going the rebels' way.
— Nahlah Ayed
Rebel spokesman Eduard Basurin said hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered in Debaltseve. Russian state-owned television on Wednesday showed images of several dozen Ukrainian troops being escorted along a village road by the rebels.
The fighting has continued in Debaltseve despite a ceasefire brokered by European leaders that took effect Sunday. The ceasefire was to be followed by the withdrawal of heavy weaponry, which was originally meant to begin Tuesday.
Some soldiers, unshaven and visibly upset, arrived in Artyomovsk on foot. Angry that they had not received any reinforcement from the government, they said they had to retreat and walk for a whole day.
"We're very happy to be here," one of the soldiers told the AP. "We were praying all the time and already said good-bye to our lives a hundred times." He said they have not been able to get food for days because of the rebel shelling.
Another Ukrainian soldier who introduced himself only as Nikolai said he was not even sure if they were retreating or being rotated out of Debaltseve.
"I don't know, our commanders didn't tell us whether it's retreat or just rotation," he said. "They just told us to change our positions because our unit had been staying there for quite a long time and we had sustained quite big losses."
Members of the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic army collect parts of a destroyed Ukrainian army tank in the town of Vuhlehirsk, about 10 kilometres west of Debaltseve. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)
Kyiv has admitted that soldiers had been taken prisoner in Debaltseve, but gave no details on how many were seized.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, on a visit to Budapest on Tuesday, had called on Kyiv to admit defeat in the contested town, saying "the only choice" of the Ukrainian troops was to "leave behind weaponry, lay down arms and surrender."
Russia has denied supplying the separatists with troops and weapons, a claim scoffed at by Western nations and Ukraine, who point to what they say are NATO satellite pictures of Russian weapons in eastern Ukraine.
Poroshenko sought to portray the withdrawal as a tactical decision that "laid shame on Russia, which called on the Ukrainian troops yesterday to lay down arms, raise the white flag and surrender.
"The Ukrainian troops... gave a blow in the teeth to those who were trying to encircle them," he said at a Kyiv airport as he travelled to eastern Ukraine to "shake the hands" of the soldiers leaving Debaltseve.
The president denied rebel reports of large Ukrainian casualties and hundreds captured.
Russian state-owned television showed images Wednesday of several dozen Ukrainian troops being escorted along a village road by the rebels.
The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France who negotiated the cease-fire deal last week are expected to talk about its implementation later Wednesday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Wednesday accused the Russian-backed rebels in Debaltseve of acting "in clear violation of the ceasefire."
"Russia and the separatists have to immediately and fully implement the commitments agreed to in Minsk, in line with yesterday's UN Security Council resolution, starting with the respect of the cease-fire and the withdrawal of all heavy weapons," Mogherini said in a statement.
Elsewhere in the conflict zone, rebel leaders said Wednesday that they had begun withdrawing heavy weaponry from parts of the front line where the cease-fire was holding. Basurin told Russian Rossiya 1 channel that rebels were pulling back five self-propelled guns from Olenivka, south of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, on the road to the government-controlled port of Mariupol.
"This is the first step," Basurin said. "And we're not waiting for Ukraine to start pulling back the weaponry together with us."
Observers from the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe, responsible for monitoring the cease-fire, have tried to get to Debaltseve since Sunday but have been blocked by the rebels. The separatists' Donetsk News Agency on Wednesday quoted rebel official Maxim Leshchenko saying the OSCE will be allowed to visit Debaltseve "soon."
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