Ukraine crisis Fading peace as the artillery fire goes on
the artillery fire goes on BBC - 7 hours ago There have been reports of fierce fighting inside the key town of Debaltseve and the rebels ... More news for Ukraine crisis Fading peace as...
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Ukraine crisis Fading peace as the artillery fire goes on - Video
UN asks parties in eastern Ukraine to uphold peace deal
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) asked the parties in eastern Ukraine to stop fighting and implement a peace deal prepared by Germany and France. Latest global reports, balanced,...
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UN asks parties in eastern Ukraine to uphold peace deal - Video
Story highlights NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg urges Russia to "withdraw all its forces from eastern Ukraine" Ukraine's military says 80% of its armed forces have now withdrawn from Debaltseve Ukraine leader says forces are pulling back, urges world to use tough response to Russia
The two sides have been battling for weeks for control of Debaltseve, and continued conflict there has undermined a truce that apparently went into effect Sunday, raising concerns it is all but dead.
The ramifications for the West are huge because the 10-month-long conflict in eastern Ukraine has hiked tensions with Russia to a level not seen since the end of the Cold War, affecting trade and raising the specter of Russian expansion into Eastern Europe.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh called the loss of Debaltseve a huge blow to the Ukrainian government and a win for the separatist militants, who regarded it already as their territory when the front lines for the ceasefire were drawn. It's not yet clear how Kiev will respond.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, in a taped statement, said Ukrainian armed forces in the area had left Debaltseve according to plan and that Kiev was waiting for two remaining columns to pull back to the new defensive line.
"Debaltseve was under our control, there was no encirclement, and our troops left the area in a planned and organized manner with all the heavy weaponry," he said, according to his office.
Poroshenko said in his conversations with U.S. and European Union leaders he had called for "a firm reaction from the world to Russia's brutal violation of the Minsk agreements," referring to the ceasefire agreed upon in Belarus.
The President, wearing a camouflage jacket, said he was on his way to the front line to meet with some of the soldiers who have pulled back. "I will be honored to shake their hands," he said.
Ukrainian defense spokesman Andriy Lysenko told a Kiev news conference that the "organized retreat" from Debaltseve should be complete "within hours."
The official news agency of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, DAN, earlier quoted separatists as saying there had been a large handover of weapons to the separatist forces in Debaltseve.
ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine -- Ukraine's president says six servicemen were killed during the withdrawal from the fiercely contested town of Debaltseve.
The Interfax news agency also cited Petro Poroshenko as telling a meeting of the national security council late Wednesday that more than 100 were injured in the pullout.
Poroshenko earlier in the day announced the withdrawal from the town where Ukrainian forces had been under intense siege from Russia-backed separatist rebels.
He told the security council that, in total, nearly 2,500 servicemen left the town.
Smoke is seen as a tank of the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Army starts its engine at a checkpoint on the road from the town of Vuhlehirsk to Debaltseve February 18, 2015.
REUTERS
Associated Press reporters saw several dozen Ukrainian troops retreating with their weapons Wednesday morning from the town in eastern Ukraine, covered in dirt and looking exhausted. Some were driving to the nearby town of Artemivsk in trucks while several others, unshaven and visibly upset, were on foot.
One soldier 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 given to them by locals.
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Ukraine president: 6 killed, 100 hurt in pullout from embattled town
Ukraine Today 16 02 2015 This is what the #39;ceasefire #39; looked like today in the village of Shirokino
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