"It was not the withdrawal of the troops ... we were abandoned"

Ukrainian soldiers told The Wall Street Journal about the retreat from Debaltseve

On February 18, the Ukrainian army retreated from Debaltseve - a city in the Donetsk region, where since the beginning of January the most fierce battles in the Donbass continued. According to the Ukrainian command, the troops were withdrawn by organizedly and in accordance with a certain plan. The losses, according to the General Staff, amounted to 13 people killed and 157 wounded.

Deputy Head of the Moscow Bureau of The Wall Street Journal James Marson, who is located in the Donbass, spoke with four military personnel retreating from Debaltseve. Judging by their words, the “withdrawal of troops” was randomly, and the data on the losses were greatly underestimated.

Albert Sardaryan , 22-year-old orderly, several kilometers from checkpoint on the highway from Debaltsevo

We worked in the basement at the intersection in Debaltseve. On Tuesday, the front line was only 500 meters.

From 7 p.m. they began to shoot from everything that they had. I went to sleep at midnight, but an hour later they woke me up and said that we were leaving. Let's go through the fields with the headlights turned off. There were about a thousand people in the column. It took 7 hours to overcome 15 kilometers.

At 7:30 in the morning we saw 4 tanks on a hill. They thought that they were ours, but then they opened fire. On the other hand, they began to shoot from a machine gun on us. A bullet hit our truck. Another truck tried to go around us and was blown up from a grenade launcher. We jumped and opened fire. I first shot from a machine gun.

The guys went on foot, but we, doctors, lingered. There were six wounded, one of them torn off the leg. We bandaged them, provided help, asked to hold on until the cars came. I don’t know if they came or not.

We arrived at the checkpoint at 8:30 in the morning.

Grandpa , 42-year-old intelligence officer, track north of Debaltseve

The family does not know that I'm here. They think I'm at the training camp. In December, my grandson was born, I have not seen him yet. We return to Debaltseve to check if ours is left there. We do not throw the bodies of the dead.

Igor , a 40-year-old businessman and soldier from the Khmelnitsky region, a hospital in Artemovsk, the first large city on the highway north of Debaltseve

We were on checkpoint in Chernukhino. They lost the best people who always went to where the battle was going.

The separatists surrounded and captured many other strongholds. We thank the commander who secretly gave the order to collect things in the evening and prepare for the waste. He told us to pick up everything that is possible, and blow up everything else.

It was not the withdrawal of troops. The troops are withdrawn along the planned route and under the cover of artillery. We were abandoned.

Nothing was organized. The cars overtook one another. The separatist armored personnel carrier was chasing us. 16 guys in our truck were simply mowed with machine -gun fire.

Vladislav , 19-year-old soldier from Ivano-Frankivsk, hospital in Artemovsk

We were among the latter who retreated - covered the departure from the headquarters. Our cars were lagging behind the column that came under fire. We were lost, did not know where to go. I sat on the tank - when he tilted, my leg was stuck between the tracks. It was saved by my thick pants.

We managed to catch up with the column, which was still walking under fire. They selected the wounded whom they could, and loaded them on cars. We could not choose all. They arrived in Artemovsk at 8 in the morning, the ambulance took me to the hospital. I don’t know if my leg is broken or not.