The Ukraine ceasefire is looking much stronger today, as the site of the only real violations, Debaltseve, seems to be resolved, with Ukrainian soldiers conducting a coordinated withdrawal from the town.
In the days leading up to the ceasefire, the strategically located Debaltseve was surrounded by rebel forces, but the town itself remained under military control. After the ceasefire, the two sides were constantly trading fire in the town, even as calm prevailed over the rest of the frontier.
Ukraine’s military reports 22 soldiers had been killed in Debaltseve in the last several days, and over 150 others wounded. President Petro Poroshenko claimed their mission was “accomplished” in Debaltseve at any rate, and there was no reason to pull out.
US officials had been threatening Russia over the Debaltseve clashes, and US media outlets are almost universally presenting the Ukrainian withdrawal as a “bloody defeat” for the military.
Though Debaltseve’s location on the road from Donetsk to Luhansk makes it strategically valuable, however, it seems that the ceasefire is much more valuable to the Ukrainian government at this point, and agreeing to give up a single, surrounded town rather than ditch the ceasefire was likely not a difficult decision for them to make.
The New York Times has a harrowing report directly from Debaltseve of the Ukraine army retreat. !00 trucks loaded with troops and flanked by heavy tanks and other armor moved out at 1:00 a.m. Wednesday. They came under immediate heavy fire with many soldiers killed and wounded and many wounded had to be left on the field with minimal medical aid due to the intense fighting. Many of the Ukraine soldiers made it out on foot though some trucks made it all the way through. Later an attempt to remove the wounded was made but no further information on the fate of that mission was available. The Times described the defeat as devastating to the Ukraine military.
Update from the NY 'times.
The Ukrainian convoy that broke out of Debaltseve last night was said to have 2,000 soldiers when the convoy started out but only a third were said to have made it. That figure implies casualties of almost 1,500 dead wounded and captured and so far there have been no reports of numbers any where near that figure. Now that the Debaltseve situation has for the most part been resolved hopefully the cease fire will hold there as well as it appears to be holding on the rest of the front.
Congrats to the separatists. These guys are something else. They can probably teach the US something about how to defeat IS.
Note that the NYT is no longer hyping the figure of 8000 soldiers. Proshenko puts the casualty figure at 20%, which gives a total of 860. That sounds much more reasonable rhan 8000. The expression "bloody defeat" appears nowhere in the NYT article linked to and the NYT is far from "universal". That, of course, is par for the course and nobody in Europe is presenting this as any sort of big deal. Also, don't forget that the more Ukraine loses, the more the US is forced to intervene, simply to preserve its credibility as Israel's protector. In other words, the only way the neocons can save their "useful idiot" is to damage Israel. That'll be fun to watch.
Western propaganda media REFUSES to tell the truth. Thousands of poor duped Ukrainian youth have been slaughtered. Hands blow off,bodies left behind. Many many more=POW's. VAST QUANTITIES OF ARMS AND AMMO CAPTURED. GO AHEAD MR. "P" USA WAR PIMP–TRUMPET YOUR HOLLOW 'RETREAT-SLAUGHTER VICTORY
WITHDRAWS ha ha as if they had some choice what a joke
This article by Jason Ditz completely white washes what just happened. The Ukrainian forces had over extended three weeks ago, and the Federalists had created another cauldron. For two weeks the Ukrainian forces had been cut-off from resupply.
This was not a strategic retreat, nor did the UAF “decide” to give up the town. The Ukrainian army was soundly defeated. It will take a long time for the Ukrainian army to recover their losses.
Saker reports that medical units were allowed to leave but combat units were "destroyed." The junta can not afford to admit the scale of defeat, hundreds if not a thousand or more conscripts killed. The 4th mobilization will fail utterly and the rebels say they will mobilize 100,000 from their region. They are now pretty much admitting to receiving Russian arms, which seem to have capabilities far beyond anything the corrupt US MIC will be able to deliver to Kiev.