ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine: After weeks of relentless fighting, the embattled Ukrainian rail hub of Debaltseve fell yesterday to Russia-backed separatists, who hoisted a flag in triumph over the town. The Ukrainian president confirmed that he had ordered troops to pull out and the rebels reported taking hundreds of soldiers captive.
Associated Press reporters saw several dozen Ukrainian troops retreating with their weapons yesterday morning from the town in eastern Ukraine, covered in dirt and looking exhausted. Some were driving to the nearby town of Artemivsk in trucks while several others, unshaven and visibly upset, were on foot.
One soldier spoke of heavy government losses, while another said they had not been able to get food or water because of the intense rebel shelling. A third spoke of hunkering down in bunkers for hours, unable to even go to the toilet because of the shelling.
“We’re very happy to be here,” the hungry soldier told the AP. “We were praying all the time and already said goodbye to our lives a hundred times.”
Russian Channel One showed the rebels hoisting their flag over a high-rise building in Debaltseve. The army had withdrawn 80 per cent of its troops from the town and two more columns had yet to leave, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said. In face-saving comments, he denied claims by the rebels that the Ukrainians were surrounded 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 organised and planned manner,” he said in televised comments. He denied reports of large Ukrainian casualties and hundreds of soldiers captured.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, on a visit Tuesday to Budapest, had urged Kiev 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.”
