REUTERS
The first official reports on military casualties in the fighting outside the town of Debaltseve in Ukraine’s east have been released at a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in the town of Artemivsk on Wednesday.
First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Hennadiy Vorobyov reported 22 fatalities, including six when breaking through militant encirclement in Debaltseve, and over 150 wounded, according to Hromadske.TV.
"A total of 137 wounded military servicemen, 18 Interior Ministry officers and three National Guard officers have been taken to hospital in Artemivsk in the past three days of the battle. Twenty-two soldiers have died in recent days of heavy fighting, six of them [were killed] during an organized withdrawal of the Ukrainian troops from Debaltseve," Vorobyov said.
Eighty per cent of the military units with equipment and weapons had been withdrawn as of 1300 on Wednesday.
Hromadske.TV sources in Artemivsk earlier reported about 170 wounded.