A Bloody Retreat From Debaltseve as Ukrainian Forces Suddenly Withdraw

Government forces left the area around Debaltseve, in eastern Ukraine, on Wednesday.

ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces fought their way out of the embattled town of Debaltseve overnight on Wednesday, choosing a risky breakout rather than surrender as they abandoned the strategic transportation hub to Russian-backed militants.

President Petro O. Poroshenko said in a televised statement that he had ordered the retreat from the town, where intense fighting has raged in recent days despite a cease-fire agreement signed last week.

Mr. Poroshenko sought to cast the retreat in a positive light, but the loss of the town was clearly a devastating setback at the hands of separatists. Still, by avoiding capture, those who made it out also avoided handing a powerful bargaining chip to the rebel leaders.

Mr. Poroshenko’s decision, and his earlier refusal to hand over the town during cease-fire talks with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Minsk, Belarus, last week, cost an unknown number of casualties. As the scale of the nighttime fighting comes into focus, those decisions could prove contentious in Ukraine.

In a post on Twitter and in the televised statement from an airfield in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, before leaving to visit the front line, Mr. Poroshenko called the withdrawal “planned and organized” and said Ukrainian troops had accomplished their mission.

Of the as many as 8,000 Ukrainian soldiers in Debaltseve it was unclear Wednesday how many survived and avoided capture. Mr. Poroshenko said 80 percent had left.

My midday on Wednesday, limping and exhausted soldiers began showing up on the Ukrainian side describing a harrowing ordeal that began with a surprise 1 a.m. order to retreat.

“Many trucks left and only a few arrived,” said one soldier, who offered only his rank, sergeant, and first name, Volodomyr, as he knelt on the sidewalk smoking. “A third of us made it, at most.”

Others said at least a majority of the soldiers that set off in a column of about 100 trucks had managed to exit the encirclement, many straggling out on foot after their vehicles were blown up.

The order to retreat was kept secret until the last minute, and soldiers were told to prepare in 10 minutes and pile into the beds of troop transport trucks, said Albert Sardaryen, a 22-year-old medic who made the journey.

The trucks lined up on the edge of town, Mr. Sardaryen said, while tanks and tracked vehicles formed lines on either side to try to shield the soldiers for the drive through the fields, rather than over a mined main road.

The fighting started immediately, he said, and trucks started breaking down and colliding in the dark while driving without headlights. By dawn, the column was strung out on the plain and taking fire from all sides.

“They were shooting with tanks, rocket propelled grenades and sniper rifles,” and firing at the disintegrating column with rockets, he said. Dead and wounded soldiers were left on the snowy field, as there were too many to carry after the trucks were hit.

“We stabilized them, applied tourniquets, gave them pain killers and tried to put them in a place with better cover,” he said of the wounded. Later, a Ukrainian unit from outside the encirclement drove in to try to retrieve the wounded, he said.

Mr. Sardaryen ran the final four miles or so. Many of the soldiers who made it out did so on foot, though some trucks made it through, he said.

Oleksandr I. Bogunov, an army private, said the order came to carry only what would be useful for the fight on the way out, and leave all other ammunition and weaponry behind.

Mr. Poroshenko’s order came after the separatists boasted of controlling the town on Tuesday, and after Mr. Putin suggested at a news conference in Hungary that Ukraine should accept its defeat at Debaltseve by separatist forces he described as “underdogs.”

“Life is life; it just goes on,” Mr. Putin said. “No need to dwell on it.”

Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian national security and defense council, confirmed the retreat at a briefing in Kiev, the capital on Wednesday afternoon, and said the pullout was nearly completed.

“Today the armed forces of Ukraine are conducting the organized, planned retreat of units of forces of the antiterrorist operation from the city of Debaltseve,” Mr. Lysenko said. “At the moment, almost 80 percent of the Ukrainian units have retreated from this sector and this operation is to be completed soon.”

The cease-fire agreement, which was negotiated in Minsk, Belarus, by Mr. Putin, Mr. Poroshenko, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and the French president, François Hollande, formally took effect on Sunday, but there was only a brief lull in the fighting.

Although the truce was agreed to on Thursday, the leaders provided no real explanation of the decision to delay its implementation for about 60 hours. Mr. Poroshenko has said that he was willing to accept an immediate halt in the fighting and that the delay was at Russia’s insistence. That seemed to be a reflection of the advantageous position of separatist fighters on the ground in the battle for Debaltseve.

In any event, the delay provided a window for fierce and bloody fighting.

Mr. Poroshenko on Wednesday also spoke by telephone with Ms. Merkel and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. about the continued fighting, in conversations that highlighted the setback dealt to Ukrainian forces.

Ukraine’s strategy had then shifted to asking its Western partners to apply diplomatic pressure to encourage separatists to observe the cease-fire in the battle of Debaltseve, and to gain access for the monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Talks between the organization, Russia and Ukraine ended without results Tuesday around 9 p.m., and the order for the retreat came four hours later.

Mr. Poroshenko urged the United Nations Security Council to prevent further breaches by Russia and the separatists. In a statement, the Ukrainian presidential administration said that Mr. Poroshenko and Ms. Merkel condemned the cease-fire violations in Debaltseve.

“It is a cynical attack on the Minsk agreements,” Mr. Poroshenko said in the statement. “Today, the world must stop the aggressor.”

Source: New-york Times