Ukrainian forces quit besieged town, suffers devastating defeat in war against separatists
Feb 18, – Ukraine pulled thousands of troops out of an encircled town on Wednesday after a massive assault by pro-Russian rebels, who ignored a new ceasefire to seize the strategic railway junction.
The fall of the besieged town of Debaltseve was one of the worst defeats of the war for Ukraine’s troops, unable to stop an advance by Moscow-backed rebels fighting for territory the Kremlin calls “New Russia”.
Twenty-two Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the town in the past few days, the Ukrainian military high command said, with more than 150 wounded.
President Petro Poroshenko, who flew to the front-lines, nevertheless tried to cast the battle in a positive light, saying that by holding out as long as they had, Ukraine’s troops had exposed “the true face of the bandits and separatists who are supported by Russia”.
The Ukrainian troops had held out for three days beyond the start of a Europe-brokered ceasefire, forcing the rebels to disavow the truce to advance on the town.
Eighty percent of the troops had withdrawn from the town by morning, Poroshenko said, and the rest were leaving in what he described as a planned and orderly withdrawal. He said the force withdrawing numbered more than 2,000 men.
A commander of one of the main pro-government volunteer battalions who fought alongside regular Ukrainian forces said “a lot of bodies” had been left behind. The wounded were being taken to Artemivsk about 30 km (18 miles) north of Debaltseve in government-controlled territory.
The rebels described the battle as a victory and said they let the Ukrainian troops leave only after they were defeated.
“There were no attempts by Ukrainian forces to break through. The surrounded Ukrainian forces were completely demoralized. They lost their direction. They began shooting at residential areas of Debaltseve,” a senior rebel commander, Eduard Basurin, told journalists.
The rebels say the ceasefire, negotiated by Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France at a summit in Minsk, Belarus, last week, never applied to Debaltseve, which links the two rebel-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk.
Press journalist for HRO media – Norberto Lluch reports.
Category: European Crises
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