“Poroshenko announced that a planned withdrawal of troops from Debaltseve began in the morning, and currently most of the military personnel have left,” 112 Ukraina said.
The television added that the troops “are leaving with all of their weapons to demonstrate to the world and Russia that Debaltsevo is not surrounded.”
Earlier, the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces was announced by Donbas battalion commander and parliament member Semen Semenchenko.
“The withdrawal of troops from Debaltsevo is underway as planned and organized,” Semenchenko wrote on his Facebook page Wednesday, adding: “All of the stories about the control over Logvinovo turned out to be fairy tales and the pumpkin didn’t turn into a carriage.”
Also on Wednesday head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People`s Republic`s administration Maksim Leshchenko said Ukrainian military commanders had ditched the city of Debaltsevo, leaving regular Ukrainian troops demoralized.
"Debaltseve is currently being swept, the Ukrainian troops there are demoralized, the commanders have left, and there is practically no mobile phone service because the communications tower was destroyed," Donetsk News Agency quoted Maksim Leshchenko as saying.
Leshchenko added that hundreds of Ukrainian military personnel were turning over their weapons in one of the last hot spots of Debaltsevo.
“A mass turnover of weapons by Ukrainian forces is underway in Debaltsevo. The numbers of people are in the hundreds,” Leshchenko told the news agency.
Debaltseve, a strategic transport hub in eastern Ukraine, still remains one of the hotspots for violence in Ukraine. It is the place where about 5,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been encircled by independence supporters.
On February 12, during the talks held by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany in the Belarusian capital Minsk, a ceasefire deal was agreed on to deescalate hostilities in the region. The agreement also stipulates the withdrawal of artillery and prisoner exchanges.
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