Mediaboss Marketing

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urges Russia to "withdraw all its forces from eastern Ukraine" Ukraine's military says 80% of its armed forces have now withdrawn from Debaltseve Ukraine leader says forces are pulling back, urges world to use tough response to Russia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.

Link:
Ukraine troops pull back as truce falters