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Ukraine Announces a Growing List of Casualties From Debaltseve Retreat Retreating Soldiers Bring Echoes of War’s Chaos to a Ukrainian Town
(about 11 hours later)
MOSCOW — The Ukrainian military on Thursday said that the casualties in Debaltseve were substantially worse than initially announced, with at least 13 soldiers killed, 157 wounded, more than 90 captured and at least 82 missing. Witnesses said the number of dead would likely grow considerably higher. ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine — As violence continued to plague eastern Ukraine on Thursday, demoralized Ukrainian soldiers straggled into the town of Artemivsk, griping about incompetent leadership and recounting desperate conditions and gruesome killing as they beat a haphazard retreat from the strategic town of Debaltseve.
Late Wednesday, the office of President Petro O. Poroshenko had said that at least six soldiers had been killed and 100 wounded in the hurried retreat from Debaltseve, a strategically important junction in eastern Ukraine, now firmly in the hands of pro-Russian rebels. The town fell after several days of intense fighting that continued after a cease-fire was to have taken effect at midnight Saturday. Gunshots rang out on the central square, as many soldiers began drinking heavily. One soldier stood, swaying, on the sidewalk mumbling to himself. Others, who had escaped from Debaltseve after weeks of shelling, were seizing taxicabs without payment. It was not clear that all of them had been given places to sleep, and one group stood silently, shivering on a street outside the Hotel Ukraine.
In a statement defending his decision to order the withdrawal, Mr. Poroshenko said that 2,475 soldiers were safely pulled out, along with 200 military vehicles. Late Wednesday, Mr. Poroshenko urged the deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping force — an idea swiftly rejected by Russia. At Biblios, an upscale restaurant, soldiers tramped about the dining room, ordering brandy that they could not afford, then firing shots into the ceiling as the paying guests quietly fled the premises.
The Ukrainian military said it had appealed to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe for help in locating the missing soldiers. With artillery bombardments and other fighting continuing across the region, including outside the coastal city of Mariupol, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France spoke by phone on Thursday, and reaffirmed their commitment to a cease-fire negotiated last week.
With the accord they brokered last week to end the conflict seemingly in tatters, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France spoke by telephone on Thursday in an effort to find a way to impose an elusive truce. It is a goal that has eluded them for months, even as more than 5,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
None of the provisions of the peace accord, forged during an overnight negotiating session in Minsk, Belarus, have yet been carried out in line with the terms and timetable. The insistence by the four leaders — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine, President François Hollande of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany — that the cease-fire still had a chance of succeeding seemed exceedingly optimistic given the reports of shelling and artillery fire relayed by 20 monitoring teams from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
There has been no halt in fighting, with reports of battles not just in Debaltseve but throughout the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. A deadline on Tuesday for beginning the withdrawal of heavy weaponry came and went, with artillery still booming. Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for the organization’s monitoring mission in Ukraine, said that the cease-fire was being observed selectively at best, and he criticized the separatist forces for blocking observers from Debaltseve, where he said many civilians were trapped “in dire conditions” after a weekslong siege.
In the city of Artemivsk, where Ukrainian soldiers gathered after their retreat from Debaltseve, the harrowing human toll from the recent days of fighting was on vivid display. There were also warnings that the separatists, having achieved victory in Delbaltseve, would continue a push to seize more territory.
Many soldiers were in a demoralized and drunken state. Shellshocked soldiers from the battle in Debaltseve wandered the streets through the day Wednesday, before beginning to drink heavily. “The cease-fire has to be unconditional, there’s no exceptions,” Mr. Bociurkiw said at a news conference in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. “As far as the special monitoring mission is concerned, we expect unfettered and safe and secure access.”
By Wednesday evening, gunshots were ringing out on the central square. One man stood, swaying, on the sidewalk mumbling to himself. Soldiers who had escaped from Debaltseve after weeks of shelling were commandeering taxi cabs without payment. It was not clear that all of them had been given places to sleep, and one group stood silently, shivering on a street outside the Hotel Ukraine. None of the provisions of the peace accord, forged during a marathon overnight negotiating session last week in Minsk, Belarus, have been accomplished according to the agreement’s terms and timeline.
And at Biblios, an upscale restaurant in Artemivsk, soldiers staggered about in the dining room, ordering brandy for which they had no money to pay, and then firing shots into the ceiling as other guests quietly fled the premises. There has been no halt in fighting. A Tuesday deadline for beginning the withdrawal of heavy weaponry came and went, with shells and rockets still falling. And there has been no apparent movement toward a release of prisoners.
At a news conference in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s special monitoring mission in Ukraine, read a long list of violations of the cease-fire agreement throughout eastern Ukraine, most of them involving artillery fire. Mr. Bociurkiw, at the news conference, said that the combatants were not entitled to pick and choose those provisions of the cease-fire accord they wished to fulfill.
Among the violations he cited were numerous instances of mortar shelling east of the coastal city of Mariupol. “The Minsk documents are not a shopping list,” he said. “It’s one integrated whole.”
Mr. Bociurkiw complained that monitors had been unable to reach Debaltseve because they were denied access by the separatist forces controlling the town, and that monitors believed there were many civilians trapped there “in dire conditions.” Mr. Bociurkiw also read from a statement by the chief of the monitoring mission, Ertugrul Apakan, a Turkish diplomat, who said he was “profoundly disturbed” by the events at Debaltseve, especially the civilian casualties.
“The cease-fire has to be unconditional, there’s no exceptions,” he said. “As far as the special monitoring mission is concerned, we expect unfettered and safe and secure access.” Mr. Apakan also said he “condemned any attempts to create new facts on the ground and so to change the basis on which the latest package of Minsk measures were agreed on.”
He added that the combatants should not pick and choose only those provisions of the cease-fire accord they wish to fulfill. “The Minsk documents are not a shopping list,” he said. “It’s one integrated whole.” The number of dead in and around Debaltseve was a politically charged subject, as was reflected in the widely differing estimates of that number: in the thousands, according to the pro-Russian separatists; at least 13 soldiers killed, 157 wounded, more than 90 captured and at least 82 missing, by the government’s preliminary count.
Mr. Bociurkiw also read from a statement by the chief of the monitoring mission, Ertugrul Apakan, a Turkish diplomat, who said he was “profoundly disturbed” by the events at Debaltseve, especially civilian casualties, adding, that he “condemned any attempts to create new facts on the ground and so to change the basis on which the latest package of Minsk measures were agreed on.” Witnesses said the number of dead would likely grow considerably.
On the telephone call on Thursday, Mr. Poroshenko’s office said that he had told his counterparts — Angela Merkel of Germany, François Hollande of France and Vladimir V. Putin of Russia — “Do not pretend that what happened in Debaltseve corresponds to the Minsk arrangements.” In a statement defending his decision to order the withdrawal from Debaltseve, Mr. Poroshenko said that 2,475 soldiers had been safely pulled out, along with 200 military vehicles.
His comments, however, only highlighted how Mr. Poroshenko and Mr. Putin have continued to view the conflict through vastly different lenses and often with completely contradictory assessments of the facts on the ground. A spokesman for the Defense Ministry of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, Eduard Basurin, said that separatist fighters had counted 57 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers on the ground in Debaltseve.
Although hours were spent in Minsk discussing the situation in Debaltseve, no agreement had been reached on what to do about the continuing siege of the town, which lies on a main highway between the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk, regional capitals and main separatist strongholds. Speaking at a news conference in the eastern city of Donetsk, Mr. Basurin said that monitors from the O.S.C.E. would be allowed into Debaltseve on Saturday, once it was certain that there were no Ukrainian troops left.
Separatist leaders had said that they did not regard the cease-fire as applying to Debaltseve, and Mr. Putin in his public comments appeared to accept that view, suggesting during a visit to Budapest on Tuesday that Ukraine should accept its defeat at the hands of former miners and tractor drivers. Mr. Putin has consistently denied that Russian military forces have participated in battles in Ukraine. Dmytro Tymchuk, a Ukrainian military officer and member of Parliament, said there were signs that separatist forces would try to seize additional territory. In a posting on Facebook, Mr. Tymchuk said it appeared the separatists were preparing to advance north from Debaltseve.
The Kremlin, in a brief statement after Thursday’s call, offered a positive assessment of recent days. After the telephone call between the four leaders on Thursday, Mr. Poroshenko’s office said that he had told his counterparts, “Do not pretend that what happened in Debaltseve corresponds to the Minsk arrangements.”
“It was noted that the measures approved by the contact group in Minsk helped allow a reduction in the intensity of fighting in Donbass and reduced the number of civilian casualties,” it said, referring to the region of eastern Ukraine where the conflict has been concentrated. His comments, however, only highlighted how Mr. Poroshenko and Mr. Putin have continued to view the conflict through vastly different lenses, and often with completely contradictory assessments of the facts on the ground.
The Kremlin said the leaders had agreed that the foreign ministers of the four countries would begin consultations “in the nearest future” about carrying out the terms of the cease-fire — a further indication of Russia’s view that the peace accord was still on track. “The leaders emphasized the need to secure a sustainable cease-fire,” the Kremlin added. The Kremlin, accused by the West of financing, arming, training and leading the rebel resistance, offered a positive assessment of recent days’ events.
Ukraine, in its statement, said there was agreement that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is supposed to monitor the truce, should be given full support. It also said that some verification had begun, including in the area of the Donetsk airport, and in the towns of Horlivka, Pervomaisk and Shyrokyne. “It was noted that the measures approved by the contact group in Minsk helped allow a reduction in the intensity of fighting in Donbass and reduced the number of civilian casualties,” the Kremlin said in a statement, using the shorthand term for Donetsk Basin, as the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine is commonly known.
Mr. Poroshenko also demanded the release of all prisoners, including Ukrainian soldiers captured in the area of Debaltseve. The Minsk accord had called for the release of prisoners held on each side, on a principle of “all for all.” The prisoner exchange was supposed to take place within two weeks after the pullback of heavy weapons. The Kremlin said the leaders had agreed that the foreign ministers of the four countries would begin consultations “in the nearest future” about implementing the terms of the cease-fire — further indication of Russia’s view that the peace agreement remained on track. Germany also issued a generally positive statement.
For weeks after a failed truce agreement in September, the four leaders had issued positive statements even as fighting continued and the number of casualties increased, as if they might be able to impose the truce by force of will. “They agreed that for this it is necessary to take immediate concrete steps for the comprehensive implementation of the cease-fire and the withdrawal of heavy weapons under the monitoring of the O.S.C.E.,” the German government spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear if the battle for Debaltseve, with the number of dead and injured still not tallied, was a final tussle over where to draw the cease-fire line, or a clear sign that the war would persist despite the Minsk agreement. In Washington, the State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, offered a rather different assessment, in which she blamed Russia and the separatists for the breaches in the cease-fire.
Highlighting its control over Debaltseve, Russia said on Thursday that it was sending a convoy of humanitarian aid to the town. “If Russia and the separatists it backs continue to flout the agreements they signed, it will result in more costs and further isolation,” Ms. Psaki said.
In Artemvisk, the toll of battle was on vivid display, as soldiers numbed themselves with drink, many standing on streets holding beer bottles and their rifles.
At one point, a tank was driving in circles on the city commons, Artemivsk Square.
“The guys are unwinding,” said one visibly drunk soldier, standing on a corner late at night, still in the muddy uniform he wore escaping from Debaltseve. “What do you expect after a battle?”