Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko has said government forces are
withdrawing from the besieged eastern town of Debaltseve.
Poroshenko said on Wednesday that 80 percent of Ukraine’s forces
have withdrawn and another two columns were preparing to leave
the town – a key transport hub for which government forces and
pro-Russian separatists have waged a lengthy battle to control.
“This morning the Ukrainian armed forces together with the
National Guard completed an operation for a planned and organised
withdrawal from Debaltseve,” Poroshenko said in an audio message
released by his press service.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday called on all
sides in the Ukrainian conflict to cease hostilities.
“We share concerns on the situation in Debaltseve,” Lavrov said in
a joint press briefing with his counterpart from Georgia’s
breakaway region of South Ossetia.
“But we believe that in order to calm this situation down it is
necessary to stop using weapons trying to change the status quo
which was at midnight on February 15,” Lavrov said.
Earlier, pro-government forces had reported the retreat was under
way after an offensive by pro-Russian fighters.
Rebels say the current 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.
“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.
Prior to Poroshenko’s announcement, Al Jazeera’s Paul Brennan,
reporting from just outside Debaltseve, said there were plumes of
black smoke over the town and it appeared that the fighting was
ongoing.
“It is a bloody nose for the Ukrainian military, if they lose this
town,” he said.
Our correspondent added that losing the town would indicate that
Ukraine’s forces were unable to fend off a sustained attack from
pro-Russian forces.
“To lose it would be both a strategic loss and a loss from a morale
point of view,” he said.
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