Yuriy Biryukov, a presidential adviser and assistant to the defense minister, posted on Facebook that the soldiers had died in the Debaltseve area between January 18 and February 18, when Ukrainian forces withdrew.
An additional 110 soldiers were taken hostage and 81 are missing, Biryukov said. Some of the missing are still on their way out of Debaltseve, he said, while others have died.
The toll makes the siege of Debaltseve, a strategic railroad hub now shattered by heavy shelling, the deadliest single incident of the 10-month conflict for the Ukrainian military.
Ukraine’s National Defense and Security Council said Friday there had been 300 instances of violation of the ceasefire since it came into force Sunday in eastern Ukraine.
The ceasefire — hammered out last week in Minsk, Belarus, among the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany — is supposed to be followed by a withdrawal of heavy weaponry to create a buffer zone, the release of prisoners by both sides and steps toward new elections.
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Secondly, its ability rapidly to generate large scale forces “could in future be used not only for intimidation and coercion but potentially to seize NATO territory, after which the threat of escalation might be used to prevent reestablishment of territorial integrity,” he said.
And, Bradshaw pointed out, Russia is not the only threat to NATO states, citing also the danger posed by terror groups such as ISIS, also known as ISIL.
“Whilst the threat from Russia, together with the risk it brings of a miscalculation resulting in a slide into strategic conflict, however unlikely we see that as being right now, represents an obvious existential threat to our whole being, we of course face threats from ISIL and other instabilities to our way of life and the security of our loved ones.”
CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh in Donetsk and Frederik Pleitgen in Kiev contributed to this report. CNN’s Michael Pearson and Ben Brumfield, and journalist Victoria Butenko also contributed.
