STAROBESHEVE, Ukraine — As the survivor of a tank attack on a Ukrainian army truck was being carried into an ambulance, he was showered with verbal abuse by a rebel fighter.
“Why didn’t you say before that you were alive? Why so quiet?” the rebel taunted. Minutes later, the Ukrainian soldier drew his last breath.
Under the gaze of rebels, Ukrainian soldiers loaded bodies of six other dead comrades onto trucks outside the village of Starobesheve. A couple of kilometers away, in the village itself, other rebels boasted about dealing another punishing blow to Ukrainian forces.
After weeks of yielding ground, the Russian-backed separatists are brimming with confidence following a string of seemingly effortless victories.
On Saturday, Ukraine announced it was abandoning Ilovaisk, a city about 15 miles north of Starobesheve. Surrounded on all sides over several days, they sustained fire so intense that the government was compelled to plead for a corridor out.
“We are surrendering this city,” said Ukrainian Col. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the national security council.
Lysenko said regular units of the military had also been ordered to retreat from Novosvitlivka and Khryashchuvate, two towns on the main road between the Russian border and Luhansk, the second-largest rebel-held city. Ukraine had claimed control of Novosvitlivka earlier in August.
