Debaltseve Vs Crimea

From the BBC:
"Putin urges Ukraine troops to give up Debaltseve"

Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged the Ukrainian government to allow its troops to surrender to rebels in the strategic town of Debaltseve. Mr Putin also said he hoped the rebels would let any captured troops return to their families. Fierce fighting raged throughout Tuesday in the town despite a ceasefire deal signed last week, with rebels saying they now controlled most areas.The UN Security Council called for an immediate end to hostilities.\ On Tuesday evening a resolution drafted by Russia calling on all sides to respect the deal, signed in the Belarusian capital Minsk last week, was adopted unanimously by the council. International observers monitoring the truce have been unable to enter Debaltseve. The town has become a key prize for rebels and government forces, as it sits on a strategic railway line linking rebel-held Donetsk and Luhansk. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko described rebel attempts to take the town as a "cynical attack" on the ceasefire. "Today the world must stop the aggressor," Mr Poroshenko said in a statement posted on his website following a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "I call on the permanent members of the UN Security Council to prevent further violation of fundamental principles and rules of the UN and the unleashing of a full-scale war in the very centre of Europe," he said.  Mr Putin said there had been a "significant reduction" in the intensity of combat since the truce came into effect over the weekend. Mr Putin added that the fighting in Debaltseve was "understandable and predictable". He said he had warned participants in the Minsk talks that - ceasefire or no ceasefire - encircled government troops would try to break free and the rebels would try to prevent this.  Although Debaltseve has suffered weeks of artillery exchanges, correspondents say this is the first fierce fighting inside the town. Most of its 25,000 population have been evacuated but about 7,000 civilians are still believed trapped by the fighting, according to Amnesty International. The ceasefire, which came into effect on Sunday, has been broadly observed but separatists insist the agreement does not apply in Debaltseve because they have the town almost surrounded.

^ If it is so  easy to give-up territory you believe belongs to you in order to stop a war then why doesn't Putin return the Crimea to the Ukraine? I guess it's not as easy as he claims it to be. Russia could stop supplying soldiers and weapons to the terrorists in eastern Ukraine and that would end the fighting too, but then Putin would be admitting a mistake and that's just doesn't happen. ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31511926