Ukrainian troops are retreating from the hotspot of Debaltseve after intense fighting in what marks an important strategic victory for pro-Russia forces.

“All units are being withdrawn. The order was given at six this morning by army command,” said Yevgeny Shevchenko, aide to the commander of the Donbass Battalion, on the road between Debaltseve and Artemivsk. He said 6,000 soldiers had been in the city.

Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, said more than 80% of his troops in the town had left.

The size of Debaltseve – it was home to about 25,000 people before the war emptied its streets – belies its strategic importance to rebels as the site of a rail junction connecting their strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Dozens of vehicles – tanks, armoured fighting vehicles, troop transport trucks, ambulances and vans – were streaming down the highway leading from Debaltseve to the main Ukrainian lines near Artemivsk on Wednesday.

“Debaltseve is no longer ours,” said a fighter named Ilya, who said he had just come from there.

Kiev’s forces appeared to be laying down suppressing fire towards the town to help their comrades retreat. Outside Artemivsk, outgoing artillery was heard and a multiple rocket launcher seen firing off a volley towards Debaltseve.



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The Ukrainian forces were taking heavy casualties escaping the city, which has been virtually surrounded by rebel forces for at least a week.

Makeshift ambulances were delivering wounded men to the hospital. The medical chief for the region, said at least 90 wounded had been taken out.

One medic said he had taken 20 dead to the morgue, most of whom had been killed making their way out of the town. Some had been killed on top of troop carriers as they drove, he said.

Rebels have been heavily shelling any vehicles on a 10-mile stretch of the “road of life” connecting Debaltseve and Artemivsk. Shevchenko, the commander’s aide, said Ukrainian tanks had taken high ground near a smaller road leading to Artemivsk through Mironovka to cover the escape. But that road was also under fire, he said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Servicemen ride on a tank as they leave Debaltseve. Photograph: Reuters

“We got out through the fields,” said a soldier with the call sign Sailor. Most of the city is captured and government forces were “breaking out little by little”, he said.

Another soldier, named Yury, said he had been in a convoy bringing out about a dozen wounded. They had been under heavy mortar and machine gun fire and had fallen into rebel ambushes twice along the way, he said.

Soldiers from the 108th brigade of the national guard said they had been picking up men escaping from Debaltseve by foot. When asked about the intensity of the enemy fire along the escape route, they pointed to a rear wheel of their armoured fighting vehicle, which had been shredded by a mortar round, they said.

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“Guys are running out on foot through the fields because [rebels] are shelling vehicles. They give us the coordinates and we pick them up,” a soldier with the vehicle, named Alexander Ivanov, said. He said the unit had picked up hundreds of men from Debaltseve on Wednesday.

Several dozen men from the 108th, who had been stationed on the outskirts of Debaltseve, arrived in Artemivsk and, on command, fired their Kalashnikov assault rifles into the air until their magazines were empty. It was a salute, one soldier said, “for a successful return”.

Trucks full of men were also heading towards the front. One soldier said they were going to reinforce their positions on the main frontline.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Ukrainian serviceman near Artemivsk on Wednesday. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters

The defeat was a black eye for Poroshenko’s government, which has long struck a defiant pose in the face of pro-Russia aggression in the east. Some in the army were angry over his repeated denials that Debaltseve was surrounded, despite evidence on the ground that almost no supplies or ambulances had been able to get through since 8 February.

Poroshenko tried to argue that the retreat had “put to shame Russia, which on Tuesday was still demanding Ukrainian soldiers put down their weapons”. But Semyon Semyonchenko, a prominent MP and commander of the Donbass battalion, blamed the Kiev leadership for the defeat and said in a post on Facebook that he would call for the resignation of Viktor Muzhenko, the army commander, at the next session of the security and defence committee.

“What hindered us in Debaltseve? We had enough men and material,” Semyonchenko wrote. “The problem was with the leadership and coordination of actions … What’s going on now is the result of incompetent management of our troops, even though they’re trying to cover this up with a propaganda storm.”

David Cameron said on Wednesday that Europe could not turn a blind eye to Russia’s involvement in Ukraine, warning Vladimir Putin that he could face sanctions that would have financial and economic consequences for his country for many years to come.

The British prime minister said there was a temptation for every European country to leave the responsibility for dealing with what is happening in Ukraine to someone else. “That would be a terrible mistake, so Britain has been leading the argument that Russia’s behaviour has been completely unacceptable, and consequences have to follow in terms of sanctions,” he said.

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Cameron’s intervention came after the US accused Russia of violating the Ukraine ceasefire and joined other UN security council members in pouring scorn on a resolution drafted by Moscow approving the truce.

Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN, said it was “ironic to say the least” that Russia produced the motion at the same time as it was “backing an all-out assault” in Ukraine despite the ceasefire.

The UN motion was passed on Tuesday night, with the support of the US, but a number of security council members condemned Russia’s stance. Shortly before the meeting, the council issued a statement expressing “grave concern at the continued fighting in and around Debaltseve” and demanded that all parties to the conflict cease hostilities immediately.



On Wednesday, the EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said rebel activity in Debaltseve were in clear violation of the ceasefire.

“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.

With Debaltseve in the hands of pro-Russia troops, the ceasefire may have more of a chance to succeed. The Donetsk rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko had previously said his forces would observe the ceasefire everywhere except in Debaltseve, which he said rightfully belonged to the rebels.

According to the peace plan agreed in Minsk last week, both sides were supposed to begin withdrawing heavy weapons on Tuesday, but Kiev and Donetsk said they could not do so while fighting was ongoing.

Igor Plotnitsky, the head of the Luhansk People’s Republic, said on Wednesday afternoon that his forces had begun pulling back heavy weapons.



