Renewed fighting threatened to wreck the cease-fire while Ukrainian troops began to retreat from the key town of Debaltseve. The pro-Russian separatists have called Ukraine’s withdrawal a ‘surrender’
As the shaky truce generally holds in violence-stricken eastern Ukraine, hundreds of Ukrainian troops began to pull out of the strategic town under siege of pro-Russian rebel forces, the separatists stated on Wednesday. "In Debaltseve there is a massive surrender of weapons by [Ukrainian] forces. These people number in the hundreds," as Reuters reported.
"This morning the Ukrainian armed forces together with the National Guard completed an operation for a planned and organized withdrawal from Debaltseve," the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said while rejecting separatists' claim.
Pro-Russian rebel groups claimed to have taken 80 per cent of Debaltseve after allegedly capturing key Ukraine rail hub of east Ukrainian city, Debaltseve on Tuesday. The town have been largely encircled by heavily armed rebels who previously had been exchanging artillery fire with up to 8,000 government troops holed up inside. Both sides claim the city have been on their side of the cease-fire line. The town of Debaltseve, which serves as a strategic transport hub in the northeast of the separatist stronghold of Donetsk, has seen heavy shelling between Kiev forces and rebel groups. The clashes around the city recently intensified where separatists have been advancing since January.
"Fighting in Ukraine's east continues but the quantity and intensity of attacks has decreased, with the dramatic exception being Debaltseve. So we've also seen some reports of some fighting outside the strategic coastal city of Mariupol. So our view continues to be that Russian separatists, in fact, cannot pick and choose in which areas they want to respect the cease-fire," the United States spokesperson Jen Psaki said in a daily press briefing on Feb. 17. "The separatists' offensive underway in Debaltseve is a flagrant breach of the cease-fire," she added.
Meanwhile, the United States accused Russia of violating cease-fire agreement, noting that Russia would face additional sanctions if continue to provide support to rebels in the eastern Ukraine. The unwillingness of Putin's Russia to implement the Minsk protocols by backing separatist groups has long been criticized by the Obama administration. U.S. Vice-President Joseph Biden's statement on new sanctions against Russia if the Minsk accords are not fulfilled were heavily criticized by the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov saying that "[Russia] treat[s] this statement as a pronouncement traditional for Joe Biden containing new threats. Probably, he means that the U.S. will demand from Russia to pay the price, including by forcing EU states to toughen their position," as reported by Russian state-run Itar-Tass news agency.
"The cease-fire must be all-embracing, including in the so-called 'Debaltsevo pocket'. [Russia] urge[s] that all provisions of the Minsk accords, including the start of the political process, should be implemented immediately," Lavrov added while stressing that Russia insists prompt implementation of Minsk accords on Ukraine.
The cease-fire agreement negotiated in the four-power talks on Feb. 12 includes the withdrawal of all foreign weapons and troops from Ukrainian territory and the disarmament of Russia-backed rebel groups. However, the breaches of the Minsk accords has been widely reported demonstrating that the months-long crisis in Ukraine's east has yet to be resolved despite a series of mediating talks and peace efforts.
During the renewed fighting in the Debaltseve area, around 7,000 civilians are reportedly trapped. More than 5,600 people have been killed during heavy clashes between armed groups since the hostilities erupted in late March. According to U.N. figures, more than two million Ukrainians have been forcibly displaced due to worsening humanitarian conditions in rebel-held areas where heavy fighting has turned eastern Ukraine into a battle zone.
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