Capture or death': Ukrainian forces describe harrowing retreat from Debaltseve
Capture or death': Ukrainian forces describe harrowing retreat from Debaltseve, Ukrainian forces have described a desperate retreat from the key strategic railway hub of Debaltseve as Russia-backed separatist rebels broke through their lines earlier this week.
One lieutenant told The Wall Street Journal that he had led his company of 50 men on a 14-mile overnight march to safety early Wednesday after undergoing several days of bombardment that began early Sunday, just hours after a cease-fire deal agreed by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and France was due to take effect. The separatists repeatedly claimed that the cease-fire did not apply to the area around Debaltseve because they already had the city surrounded and considered it theirs.
"If you stay there, it is capture or death," the lieutenant, identified as Yuriy Brekharya, told the Journal. "The decision to leave came to everyone at the same time."
President Petro Poroshenko sought to portray the fall of Debaltseve in a positive light, saying the pullback was carried out "in a planned and organized manner," despite assertions by the exhausted and dirt-caked soldiers that their forces had suffered heavy losses.
"Debaltseve was under our control, it was never encircled," Poroshenko asserted. "Our troops and formations have left in an organized and planned manner ... The Ukrainian troops ... gave a blow in the teeth to those who were trying to encircle them," he added at a Kiev airport before flying to eastern Ukraine to "shake the hands" of the soldiers leaving Debaltseve.
Early Thursday, Military spokesman Anatoliy Stelmakh said the evacuation of the town was more than 90 percent complete, but did not say when it might be completed.
Lt. Brekharya told the Journal that by the time he decided to retreat, his men had lost contact with their superior officers, were running out of ammunition, and had only one armored vehicle left. When that was destroyed by shelling Tuesday, Brekharya asked a fellow officer for help and was told "Buddy, I've got nothing to help you with."
Delbaltseve is a strategic railroad junction that lies on the most direct route between the separatist east's two major cities, Donetsk and Luhansk. By taking control of it, rebels gain significant transportation connections to boost their regions' capacity to function as a unified entity. Russian television ran footage of rebels raising the flag of Novorossiya, as they call their nominal republic, over a building in the town, and images of several dozen captured Ukrainian troops being escorted along a village road by the rebels.
In the nearby town of Artemivsk, several dozen weary Ukrainian soldiers arrived on Wednesday morning.
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. They smoked cigarettes in the frigid winter air and gratefully accepted plastic cups of tea.
"We're very happy to be here," the hungry soldier told the Associated Press. "We were praying all the time and already said goodbye to our lives a hundred times."
Some retreating troops said they never received any reinforcements in Debaltseve and had been walking for a whole day. One Ukrainian soldier who introduced himself only as Nikolai said he was not even sure if his unit was retreating or being rotated elsewhere.
Lt. Brekharya claimed that from the start of the latest separatist offensive on Jan. 20 that the shelling in Debaltseve was being carried out by professional Russian soldiers. Russia has repeatedly denied arming and training the rebels and claimed that Russians who have turned up fighting alongside the rebels are volunteers whose actions are beyond Moscow's control.
Brekharya also claimed that supplies were irregular and he received orders from his superior officers to hold the line instead of either attacking or retreating long after the position of his unit had become untenable due to Russian attacks.
"Hold firm," he said he was told. "Help is coming. Wait for it."
The Washington Post reported widespread frustration with commanders, as well as, in at least one case, outright cowardice. One government battalion commander reportedly abandoned his troops last week, only to be blown up by a roadside bomb as he fled.
"We left everything in Debaltseve. We just came out with the clothes on our backs,” Ilya Andrushko of the Lviv battalion said.
"[O]ur commanders abandoned us. And the Ukrainian media were repeating what they were saying in Kiev — that we had everything, that we weren’t surrounded. It was all lies," sniper Volodymyr Trukhan said.
Semyon Semenchenko, a battalion commander and a member of parliament, also accused the military command of betraying the country's interests in Debaltseve.
"We had enough forces and means," he said in a Facebook post. "The problem is the command and coordination. They are as bad as can be."
Semenchenko's words cut especially hard because he became well-known during another major rebel rout of Ukrainian forces in the battle for Ilovaysk last summer. Semenchenko, who was wounded in the fighting, was critical of the government for allegedly abandoning volunteer troops there.
Poroshenko told a late night meeting of his national security council to consider asking for a U.N. peacekeeping mission, a move he has previously opposed, apparently fearing they would include troops from Russia or its client states. The new proposal suggests a mission be made up of security forces from European Union countries. Russia, as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, has the power to veto any peacekeeping mission.
One lieutenant told The Wall Street Journal that he had led his company of 50 men on a 14-mile overnight march to safety early Wednesday after undergoing several days of bombardment that began early Sunday, just hours after a cease-fire deal agreed by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and France was due to take effect. The separatists repeatedly claimed that the cease-fire did not apply to the area around Debaltseve because they already had the city surrounded and considered it theirs.
"If you stay there, it is capture or death," the lieutenant, identified as Yuriy Brekharya, told the Journal. "The decision to leave came to everyone at the same time."
President Petro Poroshenko sought to portray the fall of Debaltseve in a positive light, saying the pullback was carried out "in a planned and organized manner," despite assertions by the exhausted and dirt-caked soldiers that their forces had suffered heavy losses.
"Debaltseve was under our control, it was never encircled," Poroshenko asserted. "Our troops and formations have left in an organized and planned manner ... The Ukrainian troops ... gave a blow in the teeth to those who were trying to encircle them," he added at a Kiev airport before flying to eastern Ukraine to "shake the hands" of the soldiers leaving Debaltseve.
Early Thursday, Military spokesman Anatoliy Stelmakh said the evacuation of the town was more than 90 percent complete, but did not say when it might be completed.
Lt. Brekharya told the Journal that by the time he decided to retreat, his men had lost contact with their superior officers, were running out of ammunition, and had only one armored vehicle left. When that was destroyed by shelling Tuesday, Brekharya asked a fellow officer for help and was told "Buddy, I've got nothing to help you with."
Delbaltseve is a strategic railroad junction that lies on the most direct route between the separatist east's two major cities, Donetsk and Luhansk. By taking control of it, rebels gain significant transportation connections to boost their regions' capacity to function as a unified entity. Russian television ran footage of rebels raising the flag of Novorossiya, as they call their nominal republic, over a building in the town, and images of several dozen captured Ukrainian troops being escorted along a village road by the rebels.
In the nearby town of Artemivsk, several dozen weary Ukrainian soldiers arrived on Wednesday morning.
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. They smoked cigarettes in the frigid winter air and gratefully accepted plastic cups of tea.
"We're very happy to be here," the hungry soldier told the Associated Press. "We were praying all the time and already said goodbye to our lives a hundred times."
Some retreating troops said they never received any reinforcements in Debaltseve and had been walking for a whole day. One Ukrainian soldier who introduced himself only as Nikolai said he was not even sure if his unit was retreating or being rotated elsewhere.
Lt. Brekharya claimed that from the start of the latest separatist offensive on Jan. 20 that the shelling in Debaltseve was being carried out by professional Russian soldiers. Russia has repeatedly denied arming and training the rebels and claimed that Russians who have turned up fighting alongside the rebels are volunteers whose actions are beyond Moscow's control.
Brekharya also claimed that supplies were irregular and he received orders from his superior officers to hold the line instead of either attacking or retreating long after the position of his unit had become untenable due to Russian attacks.
"Hold firm," he said he was told. "Help is coming. Wait for it."
The Washington Post reported widespread frustration with commanders, as well as, in at least one case, outright cowardice. One government battalion commander reportedly abandoned his troops last week, only to be blown up by a roadside bomb as he fled.
"We left everything in Debaltseve. We just came out with the clothes on our backs,” Ilya Andrushko of the Lviv battalion said.
"[O]ur commanders abandoned us. And the Ukrainian media were repeating what they were saying in Kiev — that we had everything, that we weren’t surrounded. It was all lies," sniper Volodymyr Trukhan said.
Semyon Semenchenko, a battalion commander and a member of parliament, also accused the military command of betraying the country's interests in Debaltseve.
"We had enough forces and means," he said in a Facebook post. "The problem is the command and coordination. They are as bad as can be."
Semenchenko's words cut especially hard because he became well-known during another major rebel rout of Ukrainian forces in the battle for Ilovaysk last summer. Semenchenko, who was wounded in the fighting, was critical of the government for allegedly abandoning volunteer troops there.
Poroshenko told a late night meeting of his national security council to consider asking for a U.N. peacekeeping mission, a move he has previously opposed, apparently fearing they would include troops from Russia or its client states. The new proposal suggests a mission be made up of security forces from European Union countries. Russia, as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, has the power to veto any peacekeeping mission.