Ukraine withdraws government troops from contested Debaltseve

Kiev is pulling back its military troops from the contested town of Debaltseve in Donetsk region, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Wednesday.

"The Ukrainian armed forces together with the National Guard are completing an operation to withdraw their troops from Debaltseve," Poroshenko told reporters at the Boryspil International Airport before his departure to the restive frontline town.

He said about 80 percent of Ukrainian military units has withdrawn from Debaltseve, a regional strategic transport hub that was reportedly under siege by pro-independence rebels.

The withdrawal is under way in a "planned and organized way," Poroshenko said, emphasizing that the Ukrainian forces "were not encircled by the rebels."

"Debaltseve was under our control, and there was no besiegement," Poroshenko said, without giving an exact reason for the pullback.

Ukrainian soldiers left the town with weaponry, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other military equipment, he added.

The fighting in Debaltseve has been raging over the past days despite the ceasefire agreement reached last Thursday between the government troops and the rebel forces.

Insurgents claimed that the truce, reached in Minsk, capital of Belarus, does not apply to Debaltseve, as rebel leadership consider the town as "an internal territory" of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. Endi