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| Ukraine troops retreat from key town Debaltseve | Ukraine troops retreat from key town Debaltseve |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The Ukrainian president says his forces are making an "organised" withdrawal from the embattled town of Debaltseve. | The Ukrainian president says his forces are making an "organised" withdrawal from the embattled town of Debaltseve. |
| Mr Poroshenko said 80% of Ukraine's troops had left on Wednesday morning, with more to follow. | Mr Poroshenko said 80% of Ukraine's troops had left on Wednesday morning, with more to follow. |
| Fighting has raged over the transport hub, with pro-Russian rebels seizing control of most areas, despite a ceasefire deal. | Fighting has raged over the transport hub, with pro-Russian rebels seizing control of most areas, despite a ceasefire deal. |
| Russia's foreign minister said Ukrainian forces had been encircled and were forced to battle their way out. | |
| "I'm reckoning that common sense will prevail," said Sergei Lavrov as he urged the rebels to provide troops who surrendered with food and clothes. | |
| Earlier US Vice-President Joe Biden accused Russia of violating the accord, agreed in Minsk last week. | Earlier US Vice-President Joe Biden accused Russia of violating the accord, agreed in Minsk last week. |
| Mr Lavrov told reporters that the rebel attack in Debaltseve did not violate the ceasefire agreement, because Debaltseve was part of the rebel-held area at the time the peace deal was signed. | |
| Eyewitnesses saw dozens of tanks and columns of weary Ukrainian troops retreating from Debaltseve on Wednesday. | |
| "This morning the Ukrainian armed forces together with the National Guard completed an operation for a planned and organised withdrawal from Debaltseve," the Ukrainian president said in a statement before travelling to the frontline in eastern Ukraine. | |
| "As of now we can say that 80 percent of our units have left," he said. | |
| "We are expecting another two columns (to leave)." | |
| The withdrawal comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Ukraine's troops in Debaltseve to surrender. | |
| International observers monitoring the truce have been unable to enter the town. | |
| It has become a key prize for rebels and government forces, as it sits on a strategic railway line linking rebel-held Donetsk and Luhansk. | |
| Most of its 25,000 population has been evacuated but about 7,000 civilians are still believed trapped by the fighting. | |
| The ceasefire, which came into effect on Sunday, has been broadly observed elsewhere. | |
| Rebel leaders in the so-called Donetsk People's Republic said on Wednesday they had begun to withdraw heavy weaponry from the parts of the frontline where the ceasefire was holding. | |
| The withdrawal was due to start no later than the second day after the truce came into effect and be completed within two weeks, creating buffer zones 50-140km (30-85 miles) wide. | |
| The UN says more than 5,600 people have been killed in the conflict since April, but there are fears the actual death toll could be much higher. |