After Debaltseve Defeat, What Next?: Out from Debaltseve hell and back to the trenches

Savchuk, 25, who worked as agronomist in Khmelnytsky Oblast before being drafted to the 30th Mechanized Brigade, said his unit was lucky to survive during a dramatic escape under fire. He said he saw at least five Ukrainian soldiers killed while fleeing from Debaltseve on Feb. 18.

Now Savchuk thinks that Russian troops and their proxies will advance despite the Feb. 12 Minsk cease-fire agreement, which the Kremlin has already ignored. “Most probably they won’t stop and will try to capture Artemivsk and then Sloviansk,” Savchuk told the Kyiv Post, as he cleaned his Kalashnikov with a toothbrush.

The fall of Debaltseve, a strategic Donetsk Oblast railway junction city of 30,000 people, transformed the fate of Artemivsk as well. Previously, this city of 80,000 residents was at the rear of Ukrainian forces. It has become the front line overnight. Soldiers started to dig in at their new positions, this time knowing that they do not stand a chance against Russian military might. None of them had the slightest doubts that Russian soldiers knocked the Ukrainian troops out of Debaltseve.

“They have Grads, tanks and, half of them Russian, as manpower. How could we resist them? With our Kalashnikovs?” said Oleksandr, 37, a soldier of 128th Brigade, who refused to give his last name without permission of his commanders. He added that the soldiers were in dire need of new guns and equipment. This is why, he said, military aid from Western allies would be helpful now.

The road from Artemivsk to Debaltseve was relatively quiet on Feb. 19, but only part of the way remained under Ukrainian army control. The roar of armored vehicles drowned out the sound of distant shelling. It was only a fraction of the fire the previous day, which killed dozens of soldiers who tried to escape Debaltseve after a months-long stand-off.

Ukraine’s General Staff said 22 soldiers were killed, 90 captured and 82 missing in the Debaltseve area. Andriy Lysenko, a government military spokesman, reported 172 wounded during their “redeployment.”

But those who survived the retreat, say the casualties are higher. They describe the retreat as chaotic. Early on Feb. 18, combat medic Albert Sardarian dodged bullets while trying to save wounded soldiers. But the medics could do no more than give the injured first aid and pray that someone picks them up later.

“There was a guy who lost his leg. We fastened his tourniquet tight and moved him to a safe place, hoping the armored vehicles will pick him up,” Sardarian said. He had to walk miles by foot after his armored vehicle was destroyed by shells.

The withdrawal once again showed lack of planning, communication and trust, raising comparisons to the August massacre of Ukrainian troops in Ilovaisk. Hundreds — some say as many as 1,000 — troops were killed.

After Ilovaisk, Ukraine signed the first cease-fire agreement in Minsk in September, under which Debaltseve remained under Ukrainian control but remained surrounded from three sides by separatist forces. After the second Minsk peace deal signed on Feb. 12 Debaltseve became a disputed area.

Kremlin-backed separatist Aleksandr Zakharchenko claimed Debaltseve was not part of the peace deal. So the truce that started on Feb. 15 lasted less than an hour there.

Sardarian, who served at a checkpoint close to Debaltseve, said that shelling resumed 1 a.m. on Feb. 15. He started his tour as a frontline medic on Feb. 5, hoping to return from Debaltseve within 12 hours. But he ended up stuck in the city for two weeks. The only instructions he received from his commanders were to “stay put.”

There was a constant flow of dead bodies and wounded soldiers to his medical unit. “Many wounded died as we couldn’t take them to the hospital in Artemivsk because of the encirclement,” Sardarian said.

The fighting got more intensive every day as artillery gradually destroyed the city. By Feb. 17, Sardarian said his checkpoint was just 500 meters from the fighting.

Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe were meeting with both sides in the town of Soledar, some 45 kilometers from Debaltseve, to enact the cease-fire. But they did not succeed.

Yuriy Brekharia, first lieutenant of the 40th Brigade said that since Jan. 20 it was clear that they were fighting against Russian soldiers. “They were obviously well-coordinated and precise in targeting. They were moving in en masse. I remember this style since Ilovaisk,” he said.

On Feb. 17, the fights in Debaltseve reached their peak. Brekharia’s redoubt with some 50 soldiers, located north of the city, had its last armored vehicle burned. By then the enemy managed to capture most of the city, destroying the Ukrainian checkpoints and taking many soldiers as prisoners.

Brekharia said the Ukrainian commanders decided to start withdrawing their units because they could no longer see any way to resist the attacks. “If we stayed there it would be either captivity or death,” he said.

Brekharia led his unit on foot through fields and forest by a secret pass, which the separatists overlooked. After walking for 20 kilometers his soldiers were exhausted, freezing, but all safe.

Way too many soldiers were less fortunate.

Vladyslav, 19, a soldier of the 128th brigade, who refused to give his last name without permission of superior officers, ended up in a hospital bed in Artemivsk with his leg injuries.

His unit was one of the last ones to withdraw. At about 4 a.m. on Feb 18, they brought their dead comrades into the truck and started traveling. But the truck got lost and was ambushed along the way. He feels lucky to be alive. “After the ambush I saw five guys killed and lying by the wall,” he said.

Sardarian, the medic, said he saw about a dozen soldiers killed on the way from Debaltseve after three trucks in his motorcade were hit by a shell and burned.

But President Petro Poroshenko said that the retreat was a planned operation that he ordered. Late on Feb. 18 he traveled to Artemivsk to meet with soldiers who left Debaltseve, and gave the Hero of Ukraine order for heroism to the commander of the 128th Brigade, Serhiy Sheptala. Poroshenko wrote on his Facebook page that he was “proud and happy” to be the chief commander of such brave forces.

But Igor, a soldier of the same brigade who fought at a distant checkpoint near the village of Chornukhyno, said he wanted to meet Poroshenko in Artemivsk and talk to him about those killed in the encirclement, but failed to find him. “I wanted to ask him: What did the best of our guys perish for?”

Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected]

Editor’s Note: This article has been produced with support from www.mymedia.org.ua, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and implemented by a joint venture between NIRAS and BBC Media Action. Content is independent of the donor.