海角大神

The humbling pullout of Ukrainian troops from the strategic town of Debaltseve, with potentially heavy loss of life and equipment for Kiev, puts the latest phase of European cease-fire diplomacy into serious question, even as Western nations remain divided over how and whether to more robustly arm Ukraine.

The battlefield success appears to give another implicit victory to Russian President Vladimir Putin, while handing a potentially direct military and political loss to Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko, who must now explain ongoing chaos and loss in the eastern part of his country despite an apparent diplomatic agreement.

On Wednesday night, Mr. Poroshenko called for UN peacekeepers to deploy immediately. Meanwhile today, French and German leaders spoke by telephone with the leaders of Ukraine and Russia, the Associated Press reports from Paris, about the 鈥渃ease-fire that has been faltering.鈥� Agence France-Presse added a statement out of the talks that, "The breaches in the ceasefire seen in recent days were denounced."

The sudden withdrawal of government troops from Debaltseve, which is situated on a key rail line and whose capture ties together two main rebel-held territories, continues nearly a month of defeat and retreat by Kiev in its eastern region, and a further collapse of the Minsk Agreement negotiated last fall.

The now-broken cease-fire negotiated by French President Fran莽ois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel adds to a string of ineffectual responses, analysts say. The new effort was agreed to last Thursday, but not implemented until Sunday. It was demolished two days later as what reporters describe as rebel Cossack forces overwhelmed Ukrainian troops, many of whom retreated on foot, through cornfields.

A mounting number of reports, in fact, suggest that聽no cessation of fighting on any front in eastern Ukraine this week actually took place, according to The New York Times.

Ukrainian officials claim that 80 percent of their troops, or about 2,500 soldiers, made it out of the contested city. Rebels say they have captured more than 500 soldiers.

AP reporters witnessed Cossack forces gathering in the heart of Debaltseve:

Rebel leaders backed by Moscow today denied that the taking of Debaltseve was a cease-fire violation, saying that the city had already been surrounded by rebel forces before the cease-fire went into effect, and was thus fair game. Mr. Putin on a visit to Hungary Wednesday appeared to back the position of rebels.聽

Analysts point out that Putin is in the enviable position of not having to consult allies, security organizations, political polls, or other constituencies in supplementing his territorial seizures that date to the de facto annexation of the Crimean Peninsula a year ago. Putin has not concerned himself with the problems of his economy in order to achieve his larger aims.

At the same time, the Western nations that Putin has consistently thumbed his nose at appear to want to solve the crisis with a set of no-risk or little risk options of sanctions and prohibitions.聽

The question now is what the rebels do with their new-found gains. As Russian expert Mark Galeotti of New York University noted in The New York Times:聽

The Economist this week wasted little time quibbling over possible cross-cultural misunderstandings about the crisis in Ukraine and its challenge, placing the onus on Putin. The British publication says Putin cares little about sanctions or his free-falling currency, since the view from Moscow is that Putin is winning a larger game of dividing and mocking the West.聽