The announcement, issued as Putin met top Russian military brass in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, will stir unease in Western capitals, whose relations with Moscow have deteriorated sharply during the year-long Ukraine crisis.
The fall of the besieged town of Debaltseve was one of the worst defeats of the war for Ukraine's troops, who proved unable to stop an advance by Moscow-backed rebels fighting for territory the Kremlin calls "New Russia".
Dmitry Peskov blasted those behind speculation that the 62-year-old Putin -- who has long cultivated an action-man image -- was in ill health
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Wednesday that Russia had withdrawn most of the troops it allegedly sent across the border to back a bloody pro-Kremlin uprising
Obama was speaking in Estonia, one of three ex-Soviet Baltic states bordering Russia that fear separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine could herald problems for them
The accusation quickly dented any sense of cautious optimism from Tuesday's late-night talks between presidents Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko on resolving the five-month conflict
Russian television images showed a line of nearly 300 lorries moving through the countryside, covered with white tarpaulin and stretching over almost three kilometres (two miles)
It was the first sign the Kremlin leader has given that he would not endorse a referendum planned for Sunday by pro-Russian rebels seeking independence for two provinces
The White House said Obama and Putin spoke by phone for 90 minutes, their second phone call in the past eight days over Ukraine, an escalating crisis that is presenting a new challenge to already strained U.S.-Russian relations
A week after violent protests forced Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovich to abandon power in Kiev, Ukraine's new leaders say Russia is trying to take control of the southern Crimea region