Battle for Debaltseve
Coordinates: 48 ° 20 ′ 0 ″ N , 38 ° 25 ′ 0 ″ E
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| date | January 16, 2015 to February 18, 2015 |
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| place |
Debaltseve , Donetsk Oblast , Ukraine
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| output | Debaltseve captured by pro-Russian forces |
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| losses | |
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184 fallen, |
at least 70 dead |
war in Ukraine
The battle for Debaltseve was a four-week battle in January and February 2015 for the 25,000-inhabitant city of Debaltseve in Donbass in Ukraine . It developed during the Ukraine war since 2014 between Ukrainian troops and militias who fought for the internationally unrecognized People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk . It partly took place parallel to and even after the conclusion of the Minsk II Agreement and ended in a defeat for Ukraine.
prehistory
Note the exposed, wedge-shaped location of the yellow sector.
In the first half of 2014, Debaltseve was occupied by armed militias that had formed after the formation of a transitional government in Ukraine with Russian support. In an offensive in the summer of 2014, the Ukrainian army fought back the area that has since formed a wedge between the proclaimed People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine and interrupted the direct road and rail links between the so-called People's Republics.
Since Debaltseve is an important railway station for the region on the rail link between Donetsk and Luhansk and the M 04 trunk road connecting the two cities runs there, the city was of strategic importance.
Fight 2015
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The place Debaltseve is about halfway on the state road M 04 between the Donetsk and Luhansk. The M 03 state road leads north to Bachmut (formerly Artemiwsk), which was under Ukrainian control until February 2015. From January 2015, the enemy troops attacked the government troops at the M 03 with heavy weapons and there was a threat of confinement. On February 5, the anti-government forces reported the capture of Wuhlehirsk , and on February 9, that of the village Lohwynowe ( Логвинове ⊙ ) on the M 03 . On February 17, 2015, three days after the official start of the ceasefire negotiated in " Minsk II " , gunmen broke into the town. After several thousand soldiers of the Ukrainian armed forces threatened to be completely encircled , they left the city under further fire from the rebels in the direction of Bachmut, leaving behind some of their material. On February 18, the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko announced the withdrawal of the Ukrainian army from the city, which has since been under the control of the militia. T-72 battle tanks of the Russian armed forces were also used in the fighting . The crews were made up of Russian soldiers who knew there was fighting in Ukraine when their groups were formed.
Legal classification
The attack and the conquest was a double violation on the part of the rebels: both the Minsk I Agreement and the currently negotiated Minsk II Agreement, which fixed the breakaway area to the extent of September 16, 2014.
Firstly, Debaltseve was not part of the rebel-occupied area at that time. Second, at the time of the conquest, a ceasefire with Minsk II had already been in place for several days and was ignored by the rebel militias.
According to Ukrainian sources, the TOS-1 “Pinocchio” system was also used in the fight . According to Geneva Protocol III on incendiary weapons of 1980, the use of such a system in the vicinity of civil infrastructure or even civilians is prohibited.
consequences
Ukraine had to cede the Debaltseve area to the anti-government troops, who now have a direct rail link between the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk and have expanded the area they have claimed at the expense of Ukraine. The cities of Debaltseve and Wuhlehirsk were largely destroyed. According to official figures, 179 soldiers died in the fighting on the Ukrainian side, 81 are still missing and 110 were captured. According to Russian opposition members around Boris Nemtsov , Debaltseve a. a. 70 Russians, who formally declared their withdrawal from the army, fell, 17 of them from a paratrooper unit from Ivanovo .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ PICTURED: The female separatist commander shelling Ukranian forces as Putin is accused of stalling a ceasefire to allow the separatists to expand their region dailymail.online on February 13, 2015
- ↑ http://www.voanews.com/a/nemtsov-report-220-russian-soldiers-dies-din-ukraine-battles/2764166.html
- ↑ Ukraine - Debaltseve - the next military hotspot in eastern Ukraine in the Tyrolean daily newspaper on January 29, 2015, accessed on March 8, 2020.
- ^ A b Shifting Lines: Russia-Backed Rebels Claim New Territory in Ukraine , Wall Street Journal of February 18, 2015, accessed on March 1, 2015.
- ↑ Kremlin-backed separatists rain death down on Debeltseve Kyiv-Post of January 20, 2015; accessed on February 22, 2015.
- ↑ Militia proclaim full control of Uglegorsky Lenta.ru on February 5, 2015, accessed on March 4, 2015.
- ↑ a b Wuhlehirsk: City almost completely destroyed korrespondent.net of February 5, 2015, accessed on March 4, 2015.
- ^ Battle of Debaltseve - Numerous prisoners and many dead in FAZ on February 17, 2015, accessed on February 22, 2015.
- ↑ a b Here the rebels laugh at the armistice , on Bild.de from February 20, 2015, accessed on March 4, 2015.
- ↑ Poroshenko announces withdrawal from Debalzewe Süddeutsche Zeitung on February 18, 2015.
- ↑ «We knew we were going to Ukraine» NZZ, March 3, 2015
- ^ Report by a Russian soldier from the Ukraine FAZ.net May 12, 2015, accessed on May 12, 2015
- ↑ Country Analysis No. 146, page 7
- ↑ Protocol on the prohibition or restriction of the use of incendiary weapons The Federal Council, May 31, 2013: It is forbidden under all circumstances to target the civilian population as such, individual civilians or civilian objects with incendiary weapons.
- ↑ Battle of Debaltseve: 179 Ukrainian soldiers killed. In: RP-Online. February 21, 2015, accessed February 22, 2015 .
- ↑ Открытая Россия: Путин. Война p. 23