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A flashpoint strategic town in east Ukraine fell today to a fierce assault by pro-Russian rebels in a serious defeat for Kiev, prompting the West to accuse Moscow of cynically exploiting an internationally-backed ceasefire.
Hundreds of exhausted government troops retreated from Debaltseve -- a strategic railway hub sandwiched between the main rebel-held cities of Donetsk and Lugansk -- as the separatists claimed total control of the town.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who came to office last May vowing to crush the separatists, confirmed most of the soldiers had left Debaltseve in what he described as "a planned and organised withdrawal".
But haggard soldiers seen arriving in the neighbouring town of Artemivsk on tanks and other vehicles, or on foot, contested that characterisation.
"We didn't hear anything about an order to pull out. We only found out about it when our heavy armour started leaving," one soldier told AFP, declining to give his name or unit. "We should have pulled out earlier," another said bitterly.
Defence officials in Kiev said a total 2,459 soldiers left Debaltseve today.
There was no official casualty toll from the ferocious street-to-street battles that had taken place in the town since the rebels stormed it on Tuesday, but the bodies of at least 13 soldiers were seen delivered to the local morgue.
A row of makeshift coffins stood in the snow outside waiting to transport the corpses, still in camouflage uniform.
A spokesman for the rebels' military, Eduard Basurin, said the town was "completely under the control" of the insurgents, with just "scattered" pockets of resistance that were being neutralised.
Basurin claimed more than 300 government soldiers had been taken prisoner. Ukrainian officials conceded some were in rebel hands but would not say how many.
Amnesty International expressed concern about the treatment of the prisoners, noting evidence of brutality by both sides towards captives.
