The Ukrainian armed forces are withdrawing their units from Debaltseve in a planned and well-organized manner on Wednesday, and 80% of them have already been withdrawn safely now, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said.

"I can say now that the Ukrainian armed forces and the National Guard completed an operation on the planned and organized withdrawal of some units from Debaltseve this morning," Poroshenko said at an airport before traveling to Donbas.

"Some 80% of the units have already been pulled out. We expect two more columns" to be pulled out, he said.