Ukraine News. Lt describes withdrawal through Rebel lines.

via The Wall Street Journal.

LUHANSKE, Ukraine—Nine hours after a cease-fire was supposed to take effect, rockets and mortars slammed into Ukrainian Lt. Yuriy Prekharya ’s redoubt on the outskirts of the besieged city of Debaltseve “like never before,” he said.
Three days of relentless pounding later, he appealed to a neighboring commander for help after advancing Russia-backed separatists destroyed his unit’s final armored vehicle.
“Buddy, I’ve got nothing to help you with,” came the reply.
So Lt. Prekharya, a 37-year-old financial analyst, gathered his 50 men and led them on a 14-mile overnight march across fields, streams and hills and through separatist lines. As dawn broke Wednesday, he was among the first of hundreds of soldiers fleeing Debaltseve to arrive in trucks, tanks or on foot at Ukrainian forces’ closest checkpoint near the village of Luhanske.

Read the whole depressing thing here.

I wonder where this guys HQ Staff is?  You never let your people talk to the media after a difficult operation.  You do a debriefing, you call in Officers and SNCOs and give them an overview of the situation so they can pass it along to their people.

You give an overview of the situation so that they better understand what everyone was dealing with and they don't feel like they were unnecessarily left on the vine.

You do it better than this.  Or you should.  What you should never do is having news media crawling around grabbing a guy after he just made a withdrawal through enemy lines to safety.

They describe this guy as being a financial analyst.  Doesn't Ukraine have a professional military...I'm talking about guys that fight for a living?