The Ukrainian president says his forces are making an "organised" withdrawal from the embattled town of Debaltseve.
Petro Poroshenko said 80% of Ukraine's troops left on Wednesday morning after several days of fierce fighting.
Russia said Ukrainian forces had tried to fight their way out
of the city after being encircled but Mr Poroshenko insisted they were
never surrounded.
The rebel advance on Debaltseve, which came in spite of the recent ceasefire agreement, has been widely condemned.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said the rebels' offensive had
put the wider peace agreement at risk and urged Russia to "use all its
influence on the separatists to make them respect the ceasefire".
He also called on Moscow to withdraw its forces from Ukraine,
saying Russian troops, artillery and air defence units were still
active in the country.
Earlier, 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 peace agreement was signed last week.
No comments:
Post a Comment