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Kiev Says Troops Withdrawn from Debaltsevo, Rebels Claim Military Surrender en Masse

February 15, 2015 

 

Ukrainian servicemen ride on a tank as they leave an area around Debaltseve, eastern Ukraine near Artemivsk, February 18, 2015	Ukrainian servicemen ride on military vehicles as they leave an area around Debaltsevo, eastern Ukraine near Artemivsk, February 18, 2015

 

Kiev says troops withdrawn from Debaltsevo, rebels claim military ‘surrender en masse’

Kiev troops surrounded in the city of Debalstevo have started to surrender en masse, Ukrainian rebels have said. President Poroshenko announced a complete withdrawal from the contested city.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko confirmed in a video statement that he has given an order to withdraw troops from Debaltsevo on Wednesdsay.

“We stated and proved that Debaltsevo was under our control and that there was no encirclement. Our units withdrew according to plan in an organized manner. They took military hardware with them – tanks, APCs, artillery pieces, tow-tracks, cars,” the president said.

He added that some 80 percent of the troops have already left the city.

Reuters cited a witness who saw the troops, some of them injured, arriving in Artemyevsk, a city northwest of Debaltsevo, through which a road leading to Kiev-controlled areas goes.

Poroshenko will visit eastern Ukraine later in the day and chair a security council session in the evening, Ukrainian media reported.

Earlier Semen Semenchenko, MP and commander of one of Kiev’s volunteer battalions, reported that the troops were being withdrawn from the contested city. He added that Kiev should now attack in other parts of the frontline, which had been weakened by the rebels to lay siege on Debaltsevo.

“They are empty and we have troops. One strike and the frontline would crumble,” he assured, adding that withdrawal is “beyond comprehension.”

Meanwhile Maksim Leshchenko, a senior official in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, told journalists on Wednesday that the Ukrainian troops are laying down their arms “in their hundreds.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Eduard Basurin, a military spokesperson for the rebels, confirmed taking some 300 soldiers prisoner.

Debaltsevo was Kiev’s stronghold deep inside the rebel-held territories in eastern Ukraine, a military asset portrayed in the media as a site of a heroic last stand of the Ukrainian military. The rebels said they had some 3,000 troops encircled in a pocket and had been calling on them for days to lay down their arms and surrender. Kiev rejected the claims, insisting that Debalstevo supply lines were intact and that the city would remain under their control.

The fate of Debaltsevo was arguably the biggest debating point at last week’s peace talks in Minsk, which resulted in a ceasefire agreement. The continued violence around the city contrasts the virtually uninterrupted truce in other parts of eastern Ukraine.

EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini demanded an end to hostilities around Debaltsevo and threatened Russia with more EU sanctions.

"The EU stands ready to take appropriate action in case the fighting and other negative developments in violation of the Minsk agreements continue," she said.

On Wednesday, anti-government forces started pulling back heavy weapons from the frontline in quiet areas of the conflict zone.

“Five 152mm self-propelled artillery pieces are being withdrawn from the village of Yelenovka to their permanent base,” Basurin told the media.

 

RIA Novosti confirmed the pullout, saying that its correspondent witnessed withdrawal of Grad multiple rocket launchers and tanks from the disengagement line.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Kiev and the rebels to do whatever they can to resolve the issue without loss of life.

READ MORE: Putin: West already supplies arms to Kiev, but Moscow optimistic about Minsk deal

“I really hope that the decision-makers in the Ukrainian leadership won’t prevent the Ukrainian troops from laying down arms, if they cannot take such an important decision themselves and order it. Or at least they shouldn’t harass people who want to save their lives,” he said.

“On the other hand, I expect the militias not to detain those people and allow them to leave the conflict zone and go back to their families,” he added.

 

Ukraine's government forces withdraw from Debaltseve

KIEV, Feb. 18, 2015 (Xinhua) --

Government forces had withdrawn from the contested town of Debaltseve in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Wednesday.

"This morning the Ukrainian armed forces together with the National Guard completed an operation for a planned and organized withdrawal from Debaltseve," Poroshenko said in an audio message released by his press service.

Poroshenko said 80 percent of forces had been withdrawn from Debaltseve, while two more columns were expected to pull out.

However, the withdrawal was clouded by an EU accusation that Ukrainian separatist forces violated a ceasefire.

"The actions by the Russia-backed separatists in Debaltseve are a clear violation of the ceasefire," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherinisaid in a statement.

"The separatists must stop all military activities. Russia and the separatists have to immediately and fully implement the commitments agreed to in Minsk, in line with yesterday's U.N. Security Council resolution, starting with the respect of the ceasefire and the withdrawal of all heavy weapons," she added, warning that the EU stands ready to take appropriate action.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday the ceasefire was almost entirely in place with the exception of the besieged town of Debaltseve.

"The ceasefire is being observed along practically the entire frontline and in a few regions there is a readiness - at least the militia announced it publicly - to withdraw heavy weapons. The exception is the Debaltseve 'cauldron'," Lavrov told a news conference.

 

Ukrainian forces start to quit besieged town

By Gleb Garanich and Anton Zverev

ARTEMIVSK/KONDRATYEVKA,

Ukraine Wed Feb 18, 2015 7:43am EST

(Reuters) -

Government forces started pulling out of a town in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday after a fierce assault by Russian-backed separatists which Europe said violated a crumbling ceasefire.

President Petro Poroshenko said before flying to the town of Debaltseve that more than 80 percent of his troops in the rail hub had already left following a heavy bombardment and street-by-street fighting despite the truce that took effect on Sunday.

Rebels say the ceasefire, negotiated by Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France at a summit in Belarus last week, does not apply to Debaltseve, which links the two rebel-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk.

Poroshenko and the West say the rebel assault is being reinforced by Russian tanks, artillery and soldiers, though Moscow denies sending forces to join the battle for a region that President Vladimir Putin has called "New Russia".

"The actions by the Russia-backed separatists in Debaltseve are a clear violation of the ceasefire," European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in Brussels, stepping up Western criticism of the rebel offensive on Debaltseve.

"The EU stands ready to take appropriate action in case the fighting and other negative developments in violation of the Minsk agreements continue," she said, making an apparent threat of further economic sanctions on Moscow.

A German government spokesman said the Minsk agreement had been damaged though it made sense to try to implement it.

Putin showed no sign of backing down over Ukraine on Tuesday evening, when he urged Kiev's pro-Western leaders to let their soldiers surrender to avoid more bloodshed.

Hours later, the Ukrainian troop withdrawal was under way. A Reuters witness saw weary Ukrainian troops, their faces blackened, some in columns, some in cars, arriving in Artemivsk, about 30 km (20 miles) north of Debaltseve.

Pro-Kiev commanders said some forces had pulled out but there were reports of continued fighting in the town. A Reuters correspondent near Debaltseve saw black smoke rising over the town and heard loud blasts hours after the withdrawal began.

"The withdrawal of forces from Debaltseve is taking place in a planned and organized way," said Semen Semenchenko, who heads the Donbass paramilitary battalion.

"The enemy is trying to cut the roads and prevent the exit of the troops," he said on Facebook.

News of the withdrawal immediately affected financial markets, with the cost of insuring exposure to Ukrainian debt and the spreads of the country's dollar bonds over safe haven U.S. treasury bills soaring to record highs.

The rouble was largely steady against the dollar.

WITHDRAWAL OF HEAVY WEAPONS

Even before the Ukrainian troops were forced to pull back, last week's peace deal had all but collapsed, with both sides failing to withdraw heavy guns as required after the rebels refused to halt their advance.

Interfax news agency cited the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic as saying that separatists had begun pulling back artillery from rebel-held areas of east Ukraine where fighting had ceased.

Rebels stepped up their offensive on Debaltseve almost immediately after the deal to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has killed more than 5,000 people, was signed on Thursday.

The deal gave both sides until Sunday to lay down their arms, prompting some analysts to suggest the rebels felt they could take the town within that timeframe.

Despite Putin's public call for a surrender, Russia sponsored a resolution adopted by the U.N. Security Council that called on all sides to implement the truce agreement, expressing "grave concern" at the violence.

Russia has already annexed Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula, and Western countries believe Putin's goal is to establish a "frozen conflict" in eastern Ukraine, gaining permanent leverage over a country of 45 million people seeking integration with Europe.

Washington said it was "gravely concerned" by the fighting and was monitoring reports of a new column of Russian military equipment heading to the area.

The United States has been considering sending weapons to aid Kiev, although the State Department said on Tuesday getting into a proxy war with Russia was not in the interests of Ukraine or the world. Putin said he believed foreign weapons were already being supplied to Kiev.

(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Natalia Zinets, Alessandra Prentice and Richard Balmforth in Kiev, Polina Devitt in Moscow; writing by Elizabeth Piper and Timothy Heritage; editing by Giles Elgood)

 

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