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A Bloody Retreat From Debaltseve as Ukrainian Forces Suddenly Withdraw
NYTimes ^ | 2-18-2015 | ANDREW E. KRAMER and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Posted on 02/18/2015 10:25:36 AM PST by tcrlaf

Ukrainian forces fought their way out of the embattled town of Debaltseve in the early hours of Wednesday, choosing a risky overnight breakout rather than surrender as they abandoned the town to Russian-backed militants.

President Petro O. Poroshenko said in a televised statement that he had ordered the retreat from Debaltseve, a strategic transportation hub where intense fighting raged in recent days despite a cease-fire agreement signed last week in Minsk, Belarus.

Mr. Poroshenko sought to cast the retreat in a positive light, but the loss of the town was clearly a devastating setback for the army at the hands of the separatists. Still, by avoiding capture, the soldiers who made it out also avoided handing the rebels a powerful bargaining chip.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: civilwar; retreat; russianukrainianwar; ukraine
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Sounds as if it was a real "Highway of Death", like in Kuwait. Rather than take the Rebels offer of leaving without arms, Poroshenko ordered them to run the gauntlet.

Pics and vids are just now coming out, but they are gruesome, to say the least.

"Many trucks left, and only a few arrived,” said one soldier, who offered only his rank (sergeant) and his given name (Volodomyr) as he knelt on the sidewalk smoking. “A third of us made it, at most,” the soldier said.

Others said that a majority, at least, of the soldiers who set off from the town in a column of about 100 trucks had managed to escape the encirclement, many of them straggling out on foot after their vehicles were blown up."

1 posted on 02/18/2015 10:25:36 AM PST by tcrlaf
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To: tcrlaf
Alex Bukovsky ‏1 hour ago #Ukraine MoD: The victory at Debaltsevo will take it's place in the history of UA glorious army. Very Orwellian...
2 posted on 02/18/2015 10:32:49 AM PST by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
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To: tcrlaf

The Russian onslaught and mass-murder continues under “cease-fire”... nothing ever changes. Russians have always been barbarians.


3 posted on 02/18/2015 10:37:14 AM PST by GeronL
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To: tcrlaf

Do you always blame the murdered instead of the murderers?


4 posted on 02/18/2015 10:37:49 AM PST by GeronL
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To: tcrlaf

lol!


5 posted on 02/18/2015 10:38:04 AM PST by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: tcrlaf

It sounds like a Ukrainian Dunkirk, except with more serious losses.


6 posted on 02/18/2015 10:40:54 AM PST by baltimorepoet
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To: GeronL
The Russian onslaught and mass-murder continues under “cease-fire”... nothing ever changes." "Do you always blame the murdered instead of the murderers?"
7 posted on 02/18/2015 10:43:05 AM PST by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
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To: tcrlaf; All

Tweets:

Gleb Bazov 58 min.
DEBALTSEVO -KievRus Battalion dep. commander: “NO ORDER from Ukraine command to retreat, NO PLANNED OPERATION.” Breakout - disaster.

Gleb Bazov 56 min.
DEBALTSEVO - KievRus dep. commander: “Everyone left to their own devices. There was no plan, only disorganization. Breakout group ravaged”


8 posted on 02/18/2015 10:53:58 AM PST by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
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To: tcrlaf; All

Steiner 47 min.
#NAF Basurin: At #Debaltsevo boiler 2-3 thousand enemies remain

Likely the two other surrounded groups that weren’t in Debaltseve itself.


9 posted on 02/18/2015 10:55:45 AM PST by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
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To: tcrlaf

A Poznan type situation. Every man for himself...


10 posted on 02/18/2015 11:06:33 AM PST by donozark (On the other side of fear lies freedom)
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To: tcrlaf

Like Napoleon’s glorious retreat out of Russia.


11 posted on 02/18/2015 11:17:31 AM PST by demshateGod (The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.)
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To: GeronL

Russians are Nekulturny.


12 posted on 02/18/2015 11:24:55 AM PST by Uncle Miltie (Bush / Clinton 2016! Clinton / Bush 2020! Uniparty Rules!)
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To: tcrlaf

Sounds like what happened to the Red Army when the Germans surrounded them in massive pockets during the early phases of Barbarossa. Every man for himself.


13 posted on 02/18/2015 11:25:51 AM PST by C19fan
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To: demshateGod

Or his glorious retreat at Waterloo.


14 posted on 02/18/2015 11:38:59 AM PST by EternalVigilance (Throw All the Bums Out.)
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To: EternalVigilance

CNN admitting just now that the retreat from Debaltseve was a complete and bloody disaster.

Per Walsh the rebels collected “Many” tanks and Artillery pieces, and some of the latest missiles.


15 posted on 02/18/2015 11:50:32 AM PST by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
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To: tcrlaf

That’s horrible news.


16 posted on 02/18/2015 12:02:52 PM PST by EternalVigilance (Throw All the Bums Out.)
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To: tcrlaf

Separatists my rear end. Many threads here show that regular Russian army troops using modern equipment are doing the killing.


17 posted on 02/18/2015 12:13:03 PM PST by piytar (If you don't know what taqiyya and the doctrine of abrogation are, you are a fool!)
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To: tcrlaf

The Russians seem to have created a successful new strategy — agree to a ceasefire and then concentrate their forces in one small enemy area and annihilate it.

As long as the global media keeps reporting that the ceasefire has been holding except for maybe a minor infraction or two, as it’s been reporting until this very moment, Russia has nothing to lose by pressing forward.

This is the same global media, of course, that excoriated Israel during last summer’s Gaza War when it tried to defend itself against thousands of air attacks from Hamas. Yet here is Russia, the aggressor, under no danger to its own people, being honored by newspapers everywhere for keeping the recent truce when it really wasn’t.

And does anyone doubt that the global media will continue to look the other way as Ukraine continues to collapse, one ceasefire after another which Russia will continue to strategically renege on?


18 posted on 02/18/2015 1:01:59 PM PST by Bluestocking
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To: piytar

“Many threads here show that regular Russian army troops using modern equipment are doing the killing.”

I would hope that the Ukrainians actually catch some Russian combat soldiers allive, parade them on TV for the world to see and then say “See, the Russians are here, fighting against us on our own sovereign territory. This IS an invasion by an outside aggressor”.

I’d like to think it would create a firestorm of public opinion strong enough to make Putin back off. But then again, it’s Vlad Putin we’re dealing with. He really doesn’t give a whit about public opinion.


19 posted on 02/18/2015 1:45:55 PM PST by MplsSteve
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To: MplsSteve
I would hope that the Ukrainians actually catch some Russian combat soldiers allive, parade them on TV for the world to see and then say “See, the Russians are here, fighting against us on our own sovereign territory. This IS an invasion by an outside aggressor”.

They have already done that.

They, at first, claimed to be there by "accident" but their unit was based north of Moscow, which is quite a wrong turn. Some did admit they were ordered there.

20 posted on 02/18/2015 2:00:56 PM PST by GeronL
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