ARTEMIVSK,
Ukraine — Ukrainian soldiers were forced to fight their way out of the
embattled town of Debaltseve in the early hours of Wednesday, casting
further doubt on the credibility of a days-old cease-fire and eroding
the promise of ending a war in Europe that has killed more than 5,000
people.
It
was unclear Wednesday how many of the thousands of Ukrainian soldiers
trapped in the eastern Ukrainian town had survived the hellish retreat
under enemy fire and avoided capture. President Petro O. Poroshenko put
the figure at 80 percent, but since the Ukrainian military has never
commented on its troop strength, the final accounting may never be
known.
By midday on Wednesday, as limping and exhausted soldiers began showing up in
Ukraine-held territory, it became clear that the Ukrainian forces had suffered major losses, both in equipment and human life.
“Many
trucks left, and only a few arrived,” said one soldier, who offered
only his rank, sergeant, and first name, Volodomyr, as he knelt on the
sidewalk smoking. “A third of us made it, at most.”
The
political fallout was as uncertain as the military situation. Mr.
Poroshenko sought to cast the retreat in a positive light, saying in a
televised statement that he had ordered the troops out of Debaltseve, a
strategic transportation hub where intense fighting raged in recent days
despite a
cease-fire agreement signed last week in Minsk, Belarus.
Yet,
his decision to fight for several days before retreating, and his
earlier refusal to hand over the town during the cease-fire talks even
when a Ukrainian defeat seemed inevitable, could prove contentious in
Ukraine as the scale of the potential slaughter comes into focus.
“It was clear they couldn’t get a deal on Debaltseve,” Samuel Charap, senior fellow for
Russia
and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said
of the Minsk talks. “The question then becomes: What the hell was
Poroshenko thinking?”
The
brazen disregard for the cease-fire on the part of the Russian-backed
separatists also called into question the future of the Minsk agreement
and the standing of two of its primary sponsors, Chancellor Angela
Merkel of Germany and President François Hollande of France, who once
again proved powerless to stop President
Vladimir V. Putin of
Russia from achieving his objectives in defiance of Europe’s wishes.
Jen
Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said that Secretary of State
John Kerry had on Wednesday urged Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign
minister, “to stop Russian and separatist attacks on Ukrainian positions
in Debaltseve and other violations of the cease-fire.”
In
Brussels on Wednesday, the European Union’s foreign policy chief,
Federica Mogherini, said the group “stands ready to take appropriate
action in case the fighting and other negative developments in violation
of the Minsk agreements continue.”
Mr.
Putin, speaking on Tuesday in Hungary about the fate of Ukraine in
Debaltseve, said that it was always tough to lose. “But life is life,”
he said. “It just goes on. No need to dwell on it.”
Given
Russian backing for the rebels in Debaltseve, including troops and
advanced weaponry, “the question was when, not if, it fell,” said Mark
Galeotti, a professor of global affairs at New York University and an
expert in Russian security matters. “It is just too strategic a
communications hub for Donetsk and Luhansk, and a weakness in the rebel
defensive line, for Moscow or the rebel leaderships to pass up.”
If
there was a shred of good news for Mr. Poroshenko, it was that by
avoiding capture, the soldiers who made it out also avoided handing the
rebels a powerful bargaining chip. But from the harrowing accounts of
survivors of the retreat, that success was purchased at a terrible
price.
A
rebel assault that began within hours of the signing of the Minsk
accord intensified on Tuesday with attacks by tanks and well-equipped
infantry that quickly left most of the town under separatist control.
The
order to retreat was kept secret until the last minute, and soldiers
were told to prepare in 10 minutes and pile into the beds of troop
transport trucks, according to Albert Sardaryen, 22, a medic who made
the journey.
Unbeknown
to them, preparations had been underway for days, as the military
leadership searched for a means of escape other than the main road out
of town, which was mined and controlled by the rebels. After sending
ambulances over farmers’ fields and down back roads without attracting
notice, they had their route.
The
trucks lined up on the edge of town around 1 a.m., Mr. Sardaryen said,
while tanks and tracked vehicles formed lines on either side of the
convoy to try to shield the soldiers. The column of trucks, carrying
more than 2,000 men, Ukrainian officials later said, kept their
headlights off to make them harder to spot.
Despite
the precautions, the column came under attack almost immediately, Mr.
Sardaryen said, and trucks started breaking down and colliding in the
dark. By dawn, the column was strung out on the plain and taking fire
from all sides.
“They
were shooting with tanks, rocket-propelled grenades and sniper rifles,”
and firing at the disintegrating column with rockets, he said. Dead and
wounded soldiers were left on the snowy fields because there were too
many of them to carry once the trucks were hit.
“We
stabilized them, applied tourniquets, gave them painkillers and tried
to put them in a place with better cover,” Mr. Sardaryen said of the
wounded.
Later, a Ukrainian unit from outside the encirclement drove in to try to retrieve the wounded, he said.
Mr.
Sardaryen said he ran for the final four miles or so. Many of the
soldiers who made it out also did so on foot, though some trucks made it
all the way through, he said.
Oleksandr
I. Bogunov, an army private, said the order had come to carry only what
would be useful for the fight on the way out, and to leave all other
ammunition and weaponry behind.
It
remained unclear how many troops were stationed in the town. Mr.
Poroshenko’s assertion that 80 percent had escaped in a column of a
little over 2,000 soldiers would seem to indicate total troop strength
of less than 3,000.
What
did seem certain was that Mr. Poroshenko would face tough questioning
in the days ahead. Though the cease-fire agreement was reached on
Thursday, it did not formally take effect until Sunday.
The leaders provided no real explanation of the decision to delay its implementation for about 60 hours.
Mr.
Poroshenko has said that he was willing to accept an immediate halt in
the fighting, and that the delay was at Russia’s insistence. That seemed
to be a reflection of the advantageous position of separatist fighters
on the ground in the battle for Debaltseve.
In
any event, the delay provided a window for fierce and bloody combat,
and when the cease-fire did take effect, it produced only a brief lull
in the fighting.
Mr.
Poroshenko spoke by telephone on Wednesday with Ms. Merkel and Vice
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. about the continued fighting and the
setback for the Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine
had asked its Western partners to apply diplomatic pressure to
encourage the pro-Russian separatists to observe the cease-fire in
Debaltseve, and to allow access for monitors from the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Talks
on the issue among the organization, Russia and Ukraine ended without
results around 9 p.m. Tuesday, and the order for the retreat came four
hours later.
Mr. Poroshenko urged the United Nations Security Council to prevent further breaches by Russia and the separatists.
In
a statement, the Ukrainian presidential administration said that Mr.
Poroshenko and Ms. Merkel condemned the cease-fire violations in
Debaltseve.
While
most analysts and European leaders urged patience to give the truce a
chance to take hold after Debaltseve, the hard truth was that Ukraine
and the rest of Europe were once again at the mercy of Mr. Putin and his
proxies in eastern Ukraine.
“The
real question is whether now that they have Debaltseve, the rebels and
Russia are willing to sit back and let the conflict freeze, or whether
they continue their town-by-town push while still proclaiming their
support for the cease-fire,” Professor Galeotti said.
Referring
to two other contested areas of eastern Ukraine, he said, “They could
head for Avdiivka, or redouble their efforts on Mariupol, but I suspect
Moscow will want now to settle back, at least for a while, and let
Western attention wander.”
Andrew E. Kramer reported
from Artemivsk, and David M. Herszenhorn from Moscow. Neil MacFarquhar
contributed reporting from Moscow, and Michael R. Gordon from
Washington.
A version of this article appears in print on February 19, 2015, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Bloody Retreat Adds to Doubt for Ukraine Truce.
