ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukraine has pulled most of its troops out of Debaltseve, the epicenter of recent fighting in war-torn eastern Ukraine, the president confirmed Wednesday. The Russia-backed separatists reported taking hundreds of soldiers captive as they continued their onslaught on the strategic railroad junction.
Associated Press reporters saw several dozen Ukrainian troops retreating with their weapons from Debaltseve on Wednesday morning, covered in dirt and looking exhausted. Some were driving to the nearby town of Artemivsk in trucks while several others, unshaven and visibly upset, were on foot. One soldier spoke of heavy government losses, while another said they had not been able to get food for days because of the rebel shelling.
"We're very happy to be here," the hungry soldier told the AP. "We were praying all the time and already said goodbye to our lives a hundred times."
The army has withdrawn out 80 percent of its troops from the town and two more columns have yet to leave, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Wednesday. He denied claims by the rebels that the Ukrainians were surrounded and said the troops were leaving Debaltseve with their weapons and ammunition.
"Debaltseve was under our control, it was never encircled. Our troops and formations have left in an organized and planned manner," he said in televised comments. He spoke at a Kiev airport as he traveled to eastern Ukraine to "shake the hands" of the soldiers who were pulled out of Debaltseve.
Rebel spokesman Eduard Basurin, however, said hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered in Debaltseve. Russian state-owned television Wednesday showed images of several dozen Ukrainian troops being escorted along a village road by the rebels.
Kiev admitted that some soldiers had been taken prisoner in Debaltseve, but gave no details on how many were seized.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, on a visit to Budapest on Tuesday, had called on Kiev to admit defeat in the contested town, saying "the only choice" of the Ukrainian troops was to "leave behind weaponry, lay down arms and surrender."
Fierce fighting around Debaltseve, which links the two major separatist cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, had raged on despite a cease-fire deal brokered by European leaders which went into effect on Sunday.
Some retreating troops said Wednesday they had not received any reinforcements from the government in Debaltseve and had been walking and retreating for a whole day. One Ukrainian soldier who introduced himself only as Nikolai said he was not even sure if his unit was retreating or being rotated out of Debaltseve.
"I don't know, our commanders didn't tell us whether it's retreat or just rotation," he said. "They just told us to change our positions because our unit had been staying there for quite a long time and we had sustained quite big losses."
AP journalists were turned back by rebel forces outside Vuhlehirsk, 10 kilometers (6 miles) west of Debaltseve, early Wednesday but heard regular artillery fire coming from the rebel side in the areas.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Wednesday accused Russian-backed rebels in Debaltseve of acting "in clear violation of the cease-fire."
"Russia and the separatists have to immediately and fully implement the commitments agreed to in Minsk, in line with yesterday's U.N. Security Council resolution, starting with the respect of the cease-fire and the withdrawal of all heavy weapons," Mogherini said in a statement.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the host of Ukrainian cease-fire talks last week, offered Wednesday to help "stop the conflict in Debaltseve with dignity and (negotiate the) pullout" the Ukrainian troops.
Elsewhere in the conflict zone, rebel leaders said Wednesday that they had begun withdrawing heavy weaponry from the parts of the front line where the cease-fire that began Sunday was holding. Basurin told Russian Rossiya 1 channel that rebels were pulling back five self-propelled guns from Olenivka, south of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, on the road to the government-controlled port of Mariupol.
"This is the first step," Basurin said. "And we're not waiting for Ukraine to start pulling back the weaponry together with us."
Observers from the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe, the group responsible for monitoring the cease-fire, have attempted to go to Debaltseve since Sunday but have been blocked by the rebels.
The separatists' Donetsk News Agency on Wednesday quoted rebel official Maxim Leshchenko saying that the OSCE will be allowed to visit Debaltseve "soon" once their forces have finished the operation there.
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Vasilyeva reported from Moscow. Peter Leonard in Vuhlehirsk, Ukraine, Yuras Karmanau in Minsk, Belarus, and John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels contributed to this report.
