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Story highlights
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg urges Russia to "withdraw all its forces from eastern Ukraine"
Ukraine's military says 80% of its armed forces have now withdrawn from Debaltseve
Ukraine leader says forces are pulling back, urges world to use tough response to Russia
(CNN) —
Ukraine’s military said Wednesday that 80% of Ukrainian armed forces have now pulled out of a strategic railroad hub that’s been the focus of bitter fighting with pro-Russian separatists.
The two sides have been battling for weeks for control of Debaltseve, and continued conflict there has undermined a truce that apparently went into effect Sunday, raising concerns it is all but dead.
The ramifications for the West are huge because the 10-month-long conflict in eastern Ukraine has hiked tensions with Russia to a level not seen since the end of the Cold War, affecting trade and raising the specter of Russian expansion into Eastern Europe.
CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh called the loss of Debaltseve a huge blow to the Ukrainian government and a win for the separatist militants, who regarded it already as their territory when the front lines for the ceasefire were drawn. It’s not yet clear how Kiev will respond.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, in a taped statement, said Ukrainian armed forces in the area had left Debaltseve according to plan and that Kiev was waiting for two remaining columns to pull back to the new defensive line.
“Debaltseve was under our control, there was no encirclement, and our troops left the area in a planned and organized manner with all the heavy weaponry,” he said, according to his office.
Poroshenko said in his conversations with U.S. and European Union leaders he had called for “a firm reaction from the world to Russia’s brutal violation of the Minsk agreements,” referring to the ceasefire agreed upon in Belarus.
The President,wearing a camouflage jacket, said he was on his way to the front line to meet with some of the soldiers who have pulled back. “I will be honored to shake their hands,” he said.
Ukrainian defense spokesman Andriy Lysenko told a Kiev news conference that the “organized retreat” from Debaltseve should be complete “within hours.”
The official news agency of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, DAN, earlier quoted separatists as saying there had been a large handover of weapons to the separatist forces in Debaltseve.
Deserted Ukrainian positions
CNN’s Paton Walsh, who is near Debaltseve, said deserted roads in the area are strewn with the wreckage of what, only hours earlier, were Ukrainian military positions.
A CNN team passed a checkpoint that had been obliterated as well as an armored personnel carrier that seemed to have been hit by a large explosion. What appeared to be the bodies of two Ukrainian soldiers could be seen there.
Only kilometers away from Debaltseve, the kind of intense shelling that would be expected with bitter fighting could no longer be heard.
It’s not clear where the civilians who were trapped by the conflict will go now, Paton Walsh said. The separatists have said they may try to evacuate them later, he said, but they would have to pass through areas that are still contested.
Speaking after news of the withdrawal, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged Russia to withdraw its forces from eastern Ukraine.
“I urge Russia to withdraw all its forces from eastern Ukraine, to stop all its support for the separatists and to respect the Minsk agreement … and to also use all its influence on the separatists to make them respect the ceasefire,” he told reporters in Riga, Latvia.
Russia has steadfastly denied allegations by Kiev and the West that it is sending heavy weaponry and troops over the border into eastern Ukraine.
Lavrov: Don’t use Debaltseve as an excuse to derail peace process
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow that Russian President Vladimir Putin had tried to highlight the danger to thousands of Ukrainian troops encircled in Debaltseve before the ceasefire agreement was signed, but that Poroshenko had denied they were trapped.
The main goal now must be to save the troops’ lives, he said.
Lavrov suggested that outside Debaltseve, the weekend ceasefire had taken hold. “Across all conflict lines we can see hostilities have ceased and heavy armor started to be moved,” he said.
He urged Kiev and the West not to try to use the situation in Debaltseve as “an excuse to derail the process,” saying such reasoning had been used in the past to hinder peace efforts.
OSCE monitors insist on access to Debaltseve
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is tasked with monitoring the ceasefire and a supposed withdrawal of heavy weapons by both sides to create a buffer zone, has not been able to gain access to Debaltseve because of the continued conflict.
The chief monitor of the OSCE monitoring mission in Ukraine, Ertugrul Apakan, said Tuesday that he was “profoundly disturbed” by reports from the town. His monitors plan to try to gain access again Wednesday.
“I am especially concerned about the civilian population of the town,” Apakan said. “The sides have a duty to them as well and to each other to adhere strictly to the ceasefire.
“I condemn any attempts to create new facts on the ground, and so to change the basis on which the latest package of measures has been agreed.”
He pointed the finger at the separatist leaders in Donetsk and Luhansk, saying that they had effectively denied the OSCE monitors access to Debaltseve, and urged them to end their offensive and allow “unfettered access.”
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Wednesday that the separatists’ actions in Debaltseve were “a clear violation of the ceasefire” and called for the OSCE observers to be allowed in.
“The separatists must stop all military activities. Russia and the separatists have to immediately and fully implement the commitments agreed to in Minsk,” she said.
“The EU stands ready to take appropriate action in case the fighting and other negative developments in violation of the Minsk agreements continue.”
Ukrainian security forces patrol in the village of Bobrovyshche on July 14, 2015. More than 6,400 people have been killed in the conflict in Ukraine since April 2014, the United Nations says.
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Ukrainian security forces on the lookout in Bobrovyshche on July 14. The country's troops face daily attacks from Russian-backed separatists despite a ceasefire being in place.
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A man with a machine gun is among the Ukrainian troops standing guard in Krimskoe town of Luhansk, Ukraine, on June 25.
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Shelling between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels leaves damage in Donetsk, Ukraine, on Monday, June 1.
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A Ukrainian serviceman fires a grenade launcher on the front lines near Donetsk on Saturday, May 30.
Pro-Russian rebels carry the coffin of prominent separatist commander Alexei Mozgovoi during his funeral in Alchevsk, Ukraine, on Wednesday, May 27.
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An American soldier, right, trains Ukrainian troops on Tuesday, April 21, near Yavoriv, Ukraine. Operation Fearless Guardian, a six-month training exercise, involves about 300 members of the American 173rd Airborne and about 900 Ukrainian National Guard troops.
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Residents flee with salvaged belongings during renewed fighting in the Jabunki neighborhood near the airport in Donetsk on Monday, April 13.
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A mortar round sticks out of the ground near a destroyed tank at a former Ukrainian army checkpoint outside Chornukhyne, Ukraine, on Monday, March 2. Russian-backed separatists had recently overran the area.
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An instructor of the Ukrainian volunteer Azov Battalion conducts training exercises in Kiev, Ukraine, on Sunday, March 1.
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A woman makes her way across a bridge destroyed in heavy fighting in Donetsk, Ukraine, on March 1.
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A volunteer gives humanitarian aid to residents of Popasna, Ukraine, on Saturday, February 28.
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A Ukrainian serviceman climbs out of a tank at a checkpoint near Horlivka, Ukraine, on Monday, February 23.
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A member of a Ukrainian military medical unit cries during a ceremony in Artemivsk, Ukraine, on February 23. Four of his comrades were killed near Debaltseve, Ukraine.
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A man holds a Ukrainian flag as he covers a victim of an explosion in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Sunday, February 22. The explosion during a peaceful protest left two dead and 15 wounded.
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Pro-Russian rebels stationed in Horlivka launch missiles on Wednesday, February 18.
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Pro-Russian separatists take position near Uglegorsk, Ukraine, on February 18.
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An army ambulance damaged in recent shelling lies by a road near Svitlodarsk, Ukraine, on Sunday, February 15.
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Ukrainian servicemen play with a soccer ball on a road between Svitlodarsk and Debaltseve on February 15.
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A woman salvages items February 15 from the rubble of a destroyed clinic where she had worked in Opytne, Ukraine.
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People carry a refrigerator through a balcony at an apartment building that was damaged in recent shelling in Svitlodarsk on February 15.
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A recent ceasefire was brokered during marathon talks in Minsk, Belarus. From left, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko gather before negotiations begin on Wednesday, February 11.
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People stand beside the body of a woman killed during shelling in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on Tuesday, February 10.
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A volunteer gets a medical checkup at a military base for pro-Russian rebels February 10 in Donetsk, Ukraine.
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Ukrainian volunteer fighters and policemen arrest two men in Kiev, Ukraine, on February 9. The men allegedly arrived from Donetsk and were suspected of participating in pro-Russian rebel activities and organizing terrorist attacks in the Ukrainian capital.
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SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images
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Residents unload humanitarian aid in Debaltseve on Friday, February 6.
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A man rides a bicycle in Vuhlehirsk, Ukraine, on February 6.
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A child waits on a bus to leave Debaltseve on Tuesday, February 3, after increased fighting in the region.
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A man stands next to his car in Donetsk on Sunday, February 1, after it was destroyed by shelling.
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The body of a civilian killed during shelling lies on the ground in Donetsk on Friday, January 30.
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People in Mariupol, Ukraine, pour soil into the grave of a recent shelling victim on Monday, January 26.
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Ukrainian servicemen prepare ammunition at a position on the front line near Mariupol on January 26.
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A man injured during shelling in Mariupol sits in an emergency hospital on January 26.
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A piece of an exploded missile sits lodged in the ground outside an apartment building in the Vostochniy district of Mariupol on Sunday, January 25.
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A resident walks by a burning building in Mariupol on Saturday, January 24.
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A pro-Russian rebel takes cover from shelling in the Kievsky district of Donetsk on Thursday, January 22.
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People in downtown Donetsk react as Ukrainian prisoners of war are handed over by pro-Russian rebels on January 22.
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A trolleybus is damaged in Donetsk's Lenin District after its station was hit by a shell on January 22.
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A rebel takes aim while protecting a supply position in the Kievsky district of Donetsk on January 22.
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Rubble and debris cover the airport in Donetsk on Wednesday, January 21.
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Vladimir Bovrichev cries next to the body of his 4-year-old son, Artiam, during Artiam's funeral on the outskirts of Donetsk on Tuesday, January 20. The boy was killed during a Ukrainian artillery strike.
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Women sit in a shelter during a battle in Donetsk on Sunday, January 18.
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A building hit by Ukrainian artillery is seen in the Voroshilovsky area of Donetsk on January 18.
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Men from the Azov Volunteer Battalion board a bus in Kiev to join the fight against the rebels on Saturday, January 17.
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Rebels sit atop a tank at a checkpoint north of Luhansk, Ukraine, on Wednesday, January 14.
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Mstyslav Chernov/AP
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A Ukrainian soldier looks down from a military truck at the Donetsk airport on Tuesday, January 6. The airport has been the scene of some of the fiercest fighting in eastern Ukraine.
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Mstyslav Chernov/AP
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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko gives a speech as he hands over new military equipment to forces near the city of Ghytomyr, Ukraine, on Monday, January 5.
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SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images
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A Ukrainian volunteer fighter fires a machine gun at pro-Russian rebels near the village of Pisky, Ukraine, on Saturday, January 3.
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VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP/Getty Images
The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution calling on all parties to abide by the truce, and issued a statement expressing “grave concern at the continued fighting in and around Debaltseve, Ukraine, which has resulted in numerous civilian casualties.”
In a call with Poroshenko, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden warned that if Russia continues to violate the Minsk agreements, “the costs to Russia will rise,” according to a White House statement.
Lavrov dismissed Biden’s words as “just another example of how the American position is not constructive.”
Village under fire
In the beleaguered village of Shyrokyno, Ukrainian forces are struggling to keep control of territory.
Mortar shelling and small arms battles broke out in Shyrokyno on Wednesday morning. Two Ukrainian soldiers were injured, Dmytro Chalov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s army in the Mariupol sector, told CNN.
“Right now, only about a third of the village is under our control,” a machine gunner named Yury told CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen a day earlier.
Oleg Shiryayev, commander of Ukraine’s East Corpus battalion, said the ceasefire “is a farce.”
“The fighting is continuing now the way it did before,” Shiryayev told Pleitgen. “They continue to attack us, shell us; they use artillery, mortars.”
But it’s impossible to tell which side is responsible for breaking the ceasefire in Shyrokyno.
To some residents, it doesn’t matter.
“The fighting is very heavy. All the windows (of) our house are broken,” one woman said. “It is very terrifying. We saved all our lives to buy our house, and now we have nothing.”
CNN’s Lindsay Isaac, Nick Paton Walsh, Emma Burrows, Holly Yan, Khushbu Shah, Claudia Rebaza and Diane Ruggiero contributed to this report, as did journalists Victoria Butenko and Azad Safarov.
