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"It's Just A Tactical Withdrawal" - Ukraine Forces "Abandon" Contested Donetsk Airport
With NATO's top military commander, General Breedlove, proclaiming that fighting in Ukraine is worse than pre-truce levels (and noting he could not confirm Poroshenko's Russian force numbers accusations), the news overnight, as The Telegraph reports, that Ukrainian forces appeared to withdraw from Donetsk airport last night, ending an 8-month battle in a bitter blow for pro-Kiev forces and apparent triumph for the Russian-backed separatists they are fighting. While the Pro-Russian separatists' Pyrrhic victory over the completely destroyed (as we noted here) airport may be a blow, a Ukrainian military spokesman on Thursday played down the surrender of the terminal buildings, saying it was simply a tactical withdrawal. Additionally, Russia has denounced an attack on a bus in separatist-held Donetsk which killed civilians as a "monstrous crime."
Victory?
Ukrainian forces appeared to withdraw from Donetsk airport last night, bringing to an end an eight-month battle in what will be seen as a bitter blow for pro-Kiev forces and a triumph for the Russian-backed separatists they are fighting.
The Ukrainian ministry of defence had insisted earlier this week that part of the airport complex was still under government control and that fighting continued.
But Yuri Butusov, a Ukrainian journalist, wrote on Facebook on Wednesday night that the airport had been abandoned because “the new and old terminals, the control tower, everything that could serve as a defensive point has been completely destroyed.”
The claim was later confirmed in a post by the Azov regiment, one of several volunteer battalions fighting alongside regular government forces.
A Ukrainian military spokesman on Thursday played down the surrender of the terminal buildings, saying it was simply a tactical withdrawal.
"Yesterday the decision was taken to leave the territory of the terminal for new positions," Vladislav Seleznyov said. "Fierce fighting continues.”
"We continue to control the southern part of the airport ... we left the new terminal because it looks like a sieve and there's simply nowhere to hide there," he said.
Reports of the fall of Donetsk airport sparked mourning on Ukrainian social media, with many users posting tributes to the fallen defenders and angry denunciations of the failure of generals and politicians to avoid the defeat.
LifeNews, a fiercely pro-Kremlin outlet, showed footage on Thursday of what it said were dead Ukrainian soldiers found in the basement.
Rebel fighters told the station that they found about 15 badly wounded Ukrainians amongst the dead, and that the troops had apparently been abandoned by their officers.
The battle for Donetsk airport, where a garrison of Ukrainian troops held off separatist attackers for eight months, had become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance.
* * *
What they were fighting for...
* * *
This surrender follows what Russia called a "monstrous crime" as a bus in Donetsk was blown up killing civilians...
#Donetsk 10 civilians confirmed killed after mortar shells hit resident area. Locals report shots came from minibus pic.twitter.com/Jflawo87B0
— Roman Kosarev (@Kosarev_RT) January 22, 2015
It was unclear whether the attack on a bus in a separatist held part of the city on Thursday morning was connected with the fighting at the airport.
Separatists who control the city initially blamed the attack on a guerrilla unit operating inside the city, rather than Ukrainian artillery firing from beyond the city limits.
Sergie Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, blamed the attack on Ukrainian shelling, denouncing the attack as a "monstorus crime".
"We are shaken by the monstrous new crime in Donetsk, where on the morning of January 22 dozens of peaceful civilians died and received injuries as a result of Ukrainian forces shelling a bus stop," he said.
The attack was a "crude provocation" aimed at undermining peace efforts, he added.
Ukrainian prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Russia bore responsiblity for the shelling that Kiev blamed on pro-Kremlin rebels.
"Russian terrorists again committed a horrible act against humanity," Mr Yatsenyuk said in statement published on the government's website. "And responsiblity for this is borne by the Russian Federation."
A Reuters correspondent counted six bodies at the scene of the strike, although rebel and municipal authorities suggested the total death toll could be higher.
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NATO is clearly growing more concerned...
- *BREEDLOVE: FIGHTING IN UKRAINE IS AT PRE-TRUCE LEVELS
- *BREEDLOVE: SOME FIGHTING IN UKRAINE WORSE THAN PRE-TRUCE COMBAT
- *BREEDLOVE SAYS RUSSIA-BACKED FORCES HAVE `RENEWED CAPABILITY'
- *BREEDLOVE SAYS HE'LL RENEW CONTACTS WITH TOP RUSSIAN MILITARY
- *BREEDLOVE SAYS CAN'T CONFIRM POROSHENKO'S RUSSIA TROOP FIGURES
- *STOLTENBERG: NATO WILL INCREASE PRESENSE IN EAST OF ALLIANCE
- *STOLTENBERG: NATO TO HAVE PERMANENT PRESENSE IN BULGARIA
- *STOLTENBERG: NATO TO HAVE COMMAND UNITS IN POLAND, ROMANIA
- *STOLTENBERG: NATO MEASURES `DEFENSIVE', `PROPORTIONAL'
* * *
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Baby, it's cold, outside....
--Dean Martin
Tactical withdrawal my ass
They're just advancing in a different direction.
Pushing forward ...
Rebel fighters told the station that they found about 15 badly wounded Ukrainians amongst the dead, and that the troops had apparently been abandoned by their officers.
What kind of loyalty was anyone expecting when your standing army is owned and operated by outside international terrorist organizations from the U.S. and Israeli government(s) with mercs from Academi and "Greystone"!...
"Porko-Jew" and Yats "ain't running the show"... And morale continues to sink into the proverbial shit bowl Darth Soros and pals created...
This is why the rebels are winning!
Here's an oldie but a goodie.... Enjoy!
Preparations for a nuclear strike.
Preparations for a nuclear strike.
And that's what it will require from the West because the "blue-jew helmet" flu ain't gonna cover it. The majority of Eastern Ukrainians that were initially loyal to the Bandar movement have either fled as neutral or have taken up with the Russians.
Gonna need plenty more fresh recruits from Grozny, Syria and Iraq to win hearts and minds in "Kiev's new government"!
The IMF (i.e. the USA) has told the Kiev coup government that continued economic support is contingent on military victory over the anti-coup forces in East Ukraine.
Thus, the Kiev coup government is bound to the IMF (US) commitment to gaining control of the land of East Ukraine.
It is difficult to say which, the US or the Kiev coup government, has the LEAST concern about the people of East Ukraine and what happens to them.
The USA will fight Russia down to the last Ukrainian!
Just like the Israelis will fight [insert enemy of choice] down to the last American.
Just like the Israelis will fight [insert enemy of choice] down to the last American.
And after 65 years of paying for it with mutiple attacks on both our military and civilians through the years to enforce the "agenda" -just when will American taxpayers that pay for "it" wise up?!!!
Well done MB!
The tax payer is not in charge!
The tax payer is not in charge!
They certainly are in charge when the people they elect violate their oaths of office to the Constitution that destroys both the economy by paying for the security to other sovereign countries and send their men and women to war based on treason!
Will the USA will fight Russia down to the last Ukrainian?
#AskTheWH
And another golden opportunity slips through our fingers.
It annoys the fuck out of me that every news report uses a variation of the same phrase 'Russian backed militia' yet never the equivalent of 'western backed Ukrainian'.
Fuck it all man, just fuck it all. Is 16:49 an acceptable time for a single malt?
yes, prost
That's because the MSM are in lock-step on most issues which in turn derives from the fact that they're all owned by a tiny number of people.
Can we get a list, or can the Tylers do an expose?
I want to know whose homes should be burnt to the ground first when TSHTF.
Why wait ?
yeah, sounds fair..US-nato backed Ukrainians shot down MH17
I wish NATO, EU and the West in general would take more seriously an existential threat from the 1400 year old war, then maybe we'd find some common interest with Russia
An excellent point!
The bus hit on Jan 13 was done by the separatists according to OSCE. Not sure what happened to this bus but Russian psy-ops is running at break-neck speed to spread lies. see http://www.stopfake.org
Not sure why the zombies went through so much to hold the airport. Brave bunch of idealists given the Russian efforts to dislodge them. Lot of Russians went home in body bags. They should have cratered the runways and taxiways so that no aircraft woud be able to land for 1000 years.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) which claims efforts to broker peace talks between Kiev and pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine is pro-Kiev. It's been bought and paid for.
Alexander Hug, deputy head of the OSCE, said on January 15, 2015 according to Press TV that pro-Russian forces’ attacks “attract counter-fire from positions opposite and other directions, which leads unfortunately to repeated civilian casualties and damage for infrastructure.”
Hug’s statement, of course, supports the Kiev propaganda position that Separatists, by countering invading Ukrainian forces are the ones causing “civilian casualties and damage for infrastructure.”
As G. Edward Griffin, author of The Creature from Jekyll Island, points out:
The money the Fed is printing is going somewhere. It doesn’t go “into a lake somewhere," it buys power.
“They are spending it to acquire control over the power centers of society. The power centers are those groups and institutions through which individuals live and act and rely on for their information. They are literally buying up the world but not the real estate and the hardware, they're buying control over the organizations, the groups and institutions that control people."
A PressTV blogger Luka wrote:
“Mr. Hug is a LAWYER, who turned to a Swiss Army soldier. He's been on the ground in Kosovo, Hebron and at one stage a commander in war-torn Bosnia. In the days since MH17 tragedy he was the first international servant on the scene. The problem for OSCE is, has any government the right to shell the civilian territory, and are the government forces attacking its own civilian population. The fact that civilians are defending themselves is a normal reaction to the prospect of being burned alive, like in Odessa, days before the civil war started.”
GET THE FUCK OUT POROSHENKO
Ukrainian forces in that airport were already dead several days ago. The town of Peski to the west of the airport is under rebel control. They are close to taking Avdeevka to the north of the airport. There are rumors that rebels may encircle Ukrainian forces in Debaltsevo. Ukraininan forces would have gladly fled the scene, but they can't, because volunteer nazi thugs would shoot them.
This is typical of Bolsheviks. Stalin not only put his men on the front lines without ammunition as cannon fodder to catch bullets but he issued a death sentence for any returning soldier taken as a POW.
Stalin's War Against His Own Troops
excerpt:
"Stalin's last tragic acts in his purging of the military were the accusations of betrayal and treachery he advanced in the summer of 1941 against the Western Front commanders, Pavlov and Klimovskikh, and several other generals among whom, as it became clear later, there were also people who behaved in an uncompromising way to the end when in captivity." This assessment is by the famous chronicler of the war, Konstantin Simonov. It appeared in the 1960s, but during the wartime ordeals there was indomitable faith: the prisoners of war (both generals and soldiers) were guilty. No other yardstick existed.
International law states that military captivity is not a crime, "a prisoner of war must be as inviolable as the sovereignty of a people, and as sacred as a misfortune." This is for others, whereas for us there was a different law -- Stalin's Order No. 270.
If ... "instead of organizing resistance to the enemy, some Red Army men prefer to surrender, they shall be destroyed by all possible means, both ground-based and from the air, whereas the families of the Red Army men who have been taken prisoner shall be deprived of the state allowance [that is, rations] and relief."
The commanders and political officers ... "who surrender to the enemy shall be considered malicious deserters, whose families are liable to be arrested [just] as the families of deserters who have violated the oath and betrayed their Motherland."
Just a few lines, but they stand for the hundreds of thousands of children and old folks who died from hunger only because their father or son happened to be taken prisoner. …
Having read these lines, I came to understand the amount of grief they carried for absolutely innocent people, just as I understood the secret sorrow of the words Private Nikolai Romanov told me a quarter of a century ago: "Your own captivity spells trouble for many."
I understood why the most horrible thing for our soldiers was not to be killed, but to be reported "missing in action," and why before each battle, especially before the assault crossing of rivers, they asked one another: "Buddy, if I get drowned, say that you saw me die."
Setting their feet on a shaky pontoon and admitting, as it were, that they could be taken prisoner solely through their own fault, they mentally glanced back not out of fear for their own lives -- they were tormented and worried over the lives of those who had stayed back at home.
http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v14/Teplyakov.htm
Our landlord in the early 60's (when I was a small chiild) was one of those captured Russians. He went from a German labor camp to a Russian labor camp post war, and was only released after the Khruschev reforms. Reunited with his wife after 10 years, neither knowing if the other was still alive, they emigrated to Canada, where he became a laborer with the Canadian Pacific Railroad.
Ken and Olga Kosmenko were our first friends in Canada after we emigrated from the UK. Their son, Ken, the only surving child of four, looked after my brother and me when our parents were working. Olga was constantly doting on us, bringing us snacks and little toys to play with. Elder Ken helped my father build a garage when we bought our first home.
As a child I knew nothing of this - it was only later when my father told me their story that I began to understand what they had been through and why they were such kind people.
Ken and Olga Kosmenko. I will never forget you.
Is it true that Stalin was a Georgian, and his wife Jewish?
"Tactical withdrawal" Isn't that what Annie Sprinkle said about the anal beads?
'Non-lethal' M16A2's (?) are delivered to [s]ISIS[/s] DNR. We required MOAR ammo!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtFfwxIei20 (from 4:36)
This whole Ukraine stuff is a perfect example of the degree of moral corruption the west has reached in an attempt to preserve the crumbling edifice of the US-dominated world order. How pathetic. We spied some folks, we misinformed some folks, we overthrew some folks, we tortured some folks, we killed some folks, we covered up some inconvenient facts, we installed some Nazi puppets, we turned a blind eye on some terrible crimes, we groundlessly accused some folks and we did it all for the common good in order to promote democracy and freedom. Who fuckin' needs this kind of "leadership"?
At this point I think the West should really be thinking about launching some moral QE because it has reached the condition of total and unconditional moral bankruptcy.
Hey, FED how about printing some paper morality? We seem to have run out of this stuff.
I agree but the problem isn't exactly moral bankruptcy.
It is that certain moral spheres are taking precedent over ones that promote civilized behavior.
You cant withdraw from something you haven't held for several days.
Maybe they mean they last guy there got out/ gave up/was shot or has been abandoned and they are not going back for him.
Thanks again MIC. Spreading Uncle Sam's goodwill to every corner of the earth.
They are using the same tactical withdrawal used by US in Vietnam, Iraq and recently Afghanistan.
the ukranian nazis have not yet begun to fight, obviously.
gNATtO thinks they have Putin over a barrel in Ukraine....
Fact is, he's got them over a barrel. They keep pushing eastward in Ukraine, supplying weapons and other support to the Nazzies, but Putin's crafty-smart stealth 'invasion' always results in their humiliation when push comes to shove.
Putin's frustrating the Nazzie-NATO military in Ukraine, enduring the NATO economic war, and strangling the Kiev regime economically while gNATtO scrambles to spend more money on eastward deployments.
Its a good thing the US is supplying CIA, advisors, mercenaries, guns, ammo, dough, supplies, drones, satellites, listening posts, etc., else the Ukranians would be getting their asses womped.
If they are smart they will use an elastic defense against the russians, er rebels to draw them in and smash them with mechanized mobile forces.
ROTFLMFAO Been reading your war books eh'.
The Novorussian forces are destroying the very poorly led Ukranian army in detail. With modern weapons a tank becomes a big target.
It's probable the Ukranian army has lost over 20,000 men already and this process just began again as "peace" has failed.
Was Yakov Naumovich Pokhis, AKA Yakov Smirnoff the only russian with a sense of humor?
That works much better when you're on the defensive against an attacker. In this case, it's the Ukies attacking.
Ukraine Stiffs China for Billions It Owes
China and Russia should just call in the loans.
If they fail to pay, they are by deed and definition: IN DEFAULT.
Enough already! Enough of the BS and kowtowing to the Lies & Deceit of the Globalist Fifth Columns in Russia and China!
Port-a-Potty-Schenko, the rest of the dual-citizen oligarchs, and their Hitler battalions lost Ukraine months ago. Not only did they hitch their wagons to the US debt machine, guaranteeing generations of financial slavery, they gave up their gold, a vestige of true sovereignty. Ironically, the US probably tagged the gold for re-hypothecation; that is, it's heading back east.
Putin didn't even want for the spring and doubled down again. Supposedly more than 10k Russian regulars over the Ukraine border now. The training I saw that the 'volunteers' (eg conscripts) the Ukrainians are getting varies from 2-4 weeks. Good luck with that and getting sent to the front lines.
Neither side wants a 'hot' war but Putin has nothing to lose for pressing his advantage even more. Only question is where does he stop. Still think his ultimate goal is creating a land bridge to Crimea and putting so much pressure on Odessa that the Ukrainians and West have no alternative but to come to the bargaining table on terms that Putin largely dictates. Putin certainly won't stop now and nor will the West unless one side can dictate terms largely to the other.
One country I haven't seen though speak/do much in regards to Ukraine is Turkey in terms of both their official policy towards it and to what extent/if any they will support Kiev.
The Turks are busy dealing with Russia, stealing Russia's pipeline business with Ukraine. They won't want to rock the boat, since things are going their way.
.
Made me laugh. Quite a delusional appraisal.
Fantasy paraded for truth. That is all.
Nice try. If you don't think that if NATO had satellite images of Russian troops massing in those kinds of numbers they'd be splashing them all over the Illuminati controlled mass media ad nauseum you're either over your head in here or a troll.
Even Poroshenko stopped at 9k. I love the changing numbers - seem to be put out by the same factory that makes up those estimates of Putin's ill-gotten wealth. Now its 10k soldiers, no, 15k, no, 20k, no, wait, 200k! Wow, the Russians are invading Eastern Europe again!
"*BREEDLOVE SAYS RUSSIA-BACKED FORCES HAVE `RENEWED CAPABILITY'"
Voentorg is back in business, bitchez! Now whatcha gonna do, Porky?
During a time of military and domestic strife, first there was "Strangelove". 50 years later, what will "Breedlove" bring?
18 year old recruits with 3 months of military "training" were sent into this hell hole listening to American Baptist preachings:
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2015/01/american-baptist-preaching-fed...
The outcome:
3 minutes video footage for Kiev to show to their puppet masters @ CIA.
What separates U.S. military from Russian military?... Submitting a request to all the American sniper loving pieces of shit in the U.S. military to show me a post interrogation video like this one telling me that you guys conduct yourselves the way this officer did with traitors who subverted his own Country?!!!
Certainly is shameful to be an American soldier, sailor, airmen or marine these days that destroys sovereign nations the way you do! But maybe we've always trained ours this way just like the Ukies we put in charge after we overthrew that government last February!
Say goodbye to the Hollywood inspired myth of "Saving" PFC Ryan! If you guys decide to go "all-in" I'd say after 14 years of what you've been doing you'll be enjoying both the worst and last tour of duty you will have!!!
http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraine-kiev-lies-to-its-own-troops-sends-t...
Late Christmas bonus.
You'll want to unwrap this one! ;-)
Anyone else heard reports of CA National Guard and Canadian troops going over there in the spring?
Yes indeed we have...
Good news it will be a very short tour of duty should they obey the orders they are given!
Best of luck to ALL OF THEM, the rest of Europe and us!!!
There are many reports of active army folks being deployed to europe in the coming months. This is a huge indicator of what is already planed to happen. A third world woar in which the west is being SET UP TO LOSE!
The sad thing is, everybody knows this is potentially the end of humanity and the earth, and no one seems to care. Europe is due to be French Fried first right after isreal, the highest bombing target priority after the first shots are fired. All inhabitants in the entire region, POOF! The bankster puppeteer families in France and London would be next.
Gee Wally, what's on TV?
Putin's rep has already said that Russia will not engage NATO, regardless. The path is clear and no WWIII danger.
So many are saying this is the new red line for Putin (all others have been crossed!). Then when there is no reaction they will once again say it is because Putin is playing chess and the destruction of EUk is actually a win for Putin and loss for NATO.
There are also reports of a build up in the ME in prep for some action. Perhaps a fake movement into Iraq again and then quickly moving these forces into Syria. Israel is bombing in Syria and shoots down Syian planes - you know, just another one of the red lines Putin would never allow to happen, but has and is happening.
Package delivery for Stumpy ...
Wonder if the Novos will make those pictures available for ID to Mr. Heinz/Kerry when the appropriate moment arrives?
Really sucks?... And how embarassing to say that the U.S. hasn't been involved in the fighting when their now may be definitive proof?!!!
Bwa Hah Ha Hah Ha Hah Ha!!!!
Putin does not have to do a thing but open the border checkpoints and instruct the guards to look the other way. The "Voentorg" is operating to keep small arms and volunteers coming into East Ukraine - Cossacks and Chechens are already in Novorussia. Hopefully that will remove the need for any Russian tank columns, like in Georgia 2008.
It all depends on whether USA goes for broke and puts regular GIs on the front lines at Donetsk.
Bankster, what help is this other than more casualities if NATO moves in with air support and bombing runs? Currently, as far as we know, the EUk army does not have the capacity to shoot down high altitude bombers. If NATO moves then the only hope EUk has is for Putin to change his mind and have direct conflict with NATO. All Putin has to do is impose a nofly zone and it would seem he could do a lot of that without entering EUk.
Capt: As far as the uniforms. Who is in them? I seriously doubt they are americans. The WUk troops sent into the airport had no support or plan and were not heavily armed. No way would US advisors go in like that. It also would seem surprising that WUk would run out of their own uniforms so soon but then they have had heavy losses. It could also be a psyopp to dress up their troops in NATO hoping to worry the EUk (does not seem to have worked). As for the weapons: I thought it was official publically known policy that arms and support were to be supplied to WUk to counter the "evil" Russia/Putin. Get ready for more small arms from the US to be found (Profits!) also to find heavy weapons from the US to be put into action and for some of these to be taken by the EUk.
Reading all the pro and con stories about what is going on I can only say that we are not told 1% of what is going on there. Not on the battleground and not behind the scenes. Something big is being planned there and this will turn very very bad indeed.
"Rebel fighters told the station that they found about 15 badly wounded Ukrainians amongst the dead, and that the troops had apparently been abandoned by their officers."
One can only bow the head to pray for these poor fellows who perished in a place far from home, and suffered so much in the last moments of life when their leadership abandoned them. How many times has the future of the slave murderers for the money-god been told? Live by the sword, die by the sword. Feel the pain and know what the angels saw in these fellow human beings last breaths. See well it is you and your families that are being set up for the same future.
Yes indeed, the song of the angelic is sad today as this insane woar mongering for the money-god and it's controller slaves goes on and on and on and nothing, not even the faithful to God can stop it all. The march towards moar woar seems to be the continuing media direction to distract folks from the bankster madness and the insanity of moar world domination via population elimination agendas.
Oh, the audacity of it all is stifling the sane brain, and the stench of death yet approaches everyone’s doorstep if this beast is not stopped post haste pronto! If you have children you love, or youthful families you care for, you best get off the duff and get jiggity into the fight for their free future. Anything less than a full on frontal assault using all the possible peaceful means necessary, and pointed at the lies and disinformation, the evil banksters, and the horrid puppet politicians that at all levels control the gullible stupid nation, will result in losing them in the draft for this coming planned world woar.
No action taken now, is sentencing them all to death in Europe somewhere to fight the banksters woar for profits and destruction. Eventually, the chemicals, nukes, and biologicals will land at home where ever you are. Maybe even after the planned power outages, or bank hackings. There is no escape from a future woar. All will perish, even those who dig underground cities to hide in. If the vast majority here do nothing to stop what everybody knows is coming after another false flag event, then just kiss them children all goodbye right now, because this evil is still hard at it to instigate and probagate moar terrorism for the reasons to perpetuate this insanity of moar woar for the bankster/politician profiteers. Ask yer selves, what have you done to preserve your children's future, and that of the free nation you live in today?
The dread bell...it tolls for thee...oh babylon.
Part of the reason for the ceasefire last September was that the Ukrainian Army UA was being pushed back on all fronts so had to call a halt. If nothing else it needed to rebuild its strength for a further push, expected after the military unfriendly winter.
There followed a period of relative peace where the Russians pulled out 'stuff' and both sides trained, repositioned themselves.
During that time, to keep the headlines going, a low level war was fought over Donetsk airport, seemingly with the agreement of both sides as neither side made a final push. As time passed the UA increased its shelling of Donetsk city. One assumes in some kind of attempt to force the Russians to act. The plan being to blame the Russians for the UA attack. The main effect was to open up the Russian 'gear' supply lines.
It seems the UA, for some unknown reason, stepped up their activities over the past couple of weeks to such an extent that it looked like they had initiated a full attack in the Donetsk area. This was a terrible blunder as the Separatists responded in force, crushing force and not just in Donetsk but in several other places as well. At this moment, Thursday night, they are rolling the UA back all over the place almost like in September.
This is going to end very badly for Kiev.
This "Tactical withdrawal" may be nothing more than a NATO/Ukraine ploy to get the separatists to pursue the retreating army, and thereby reveal their desire to increase the area of their control in Donbas.
I doubt that they or Putin will fall for it.