MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/. The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said Wednesday that some units of Ukraine’s armed forces, which according to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had left Debaltsevo, had either been killed or were surrendering, the DPR’s representative in the Contact Group on Ukrainian settlement Denis Pushilin said Wednesday.
"Poroshenko is saying certain Ukrainian armed forces units left Debaltsevo with all their weapons. Most part of the units mentioned by Poroshenko have been defeated by militia forces, and part of the units have surrendered or are surrendering now," the Donetsk news agency quoted him as saying.
Prior to his departure for the zone of Kiev’s military operation in Ukraine’s embattled south-east on Wednesday, Poroshenko said "a scheduled pullout of troops jointly with hardware started."
"Eighty percent of military with hardware have already been pulled out from the city [of Debaltsevo]," the Ukrainian head of state said.
"The withdrawal shows that there was no encirclement in the vicinity of Debaltsevo," Poroshenko said in Borispol airport.