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Prez rips Moscow after Debaltseve debacle
Journal Staff Report

KIEV, Feb. 18 - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called for "a firm reaction from the world to Russia's brutal violation of the Minsk agreements and the ceasefire regime" after Ukrainian troops were surrounded by pro-Russian troops that launched an attack on the town of Debaltseve in eastern Ukraine.

As much as 80 percent of the Ukrainian troops in Debaltseve, a key railway station connecting cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, left the town after being besieged by pro-Russian forces. The troops managed to exit even after Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Ukraine's troops to surrender.

Ukraine, U.S. and its allies say Russia supports the separatists with troops and weapons, an accusation Putin has repeatedly denied.

"Debaltseve was under our control," before the ceasefire agreement in Minsk, Belarus, was signed last week, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in s Feb. 18 statement on his official website. "There was no encirclement."

The government in Kiev said some soldiers were taken prisoners in Debaltseve without estimating how many were captured. Pro-Russian separatist leaders claimed hundreds of Ukrainian troops were captured in Debaltseve as they attacked the town despite agreeing to a ceasefire that was due to begin on Feb. 15.

Poroshenko flew to the town of Artemivsk in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday to meet with the troops that escaped the siege.

Ukrainian military sources said 22 Ukrainian soldiers had died in Debaltseve over the past three days and more than 100 were badly wounded, meaning that they probably won't recover in full. Rebels have claimed that hundreds of Ukrainian troops were killed in Debaltseve.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg called on Moscow to withdraw its forces from Ukraine, saying Russian troops, artillery and air defense units were still active in the country after the ceasefire deadline and the offensive had put the wider peace agreement at risk. He urged the Kremlin to "use all its influence on the separatists to make them respect the ceasefire".

Putin was due to speak by telephone to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Ukraine's Poroshenko. The French government's spokesman Stephane Le Foll said progress in fulfilling the ceasefire agreement has been made, BBC Corp. reported on Feb. 18. The ceasefire has been closely monitored by U.S. and EU governments and some rebel heavy weaponry was confirmed to have been withdrawn.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted the rebels' actions in Debaltseve had not violated the ceasefire because it was a rebel-held city when the Minsk agreements were signed.

International observers have been unable to enter Debaltseve, a town of about 25,000 that sits on a strategic railway line linking the rebel-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. While most of the town's population has been evacuated, about 7,000 residents are still believed trapped by fighting that continued through Wednesday, according to sources in the region.

The UN says more than 5,600 people have been killed in the conflict that began in April 2014, and there is a risk that the actual death toll could be higher. Pro-Russian separatists proclaimed so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People Republics a month after Putin annexed the Black Sea Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014. (hp/ez)




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