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 A ceasefire is due to come into effect from Sunday under the
agreement, which also envisages a withdrawal of the heavy weaponry
responsible for many of the more than 5,000 casualties in the
conflict that broke out almost a year ago.
Both sides accused each other of killing civilians. Two people were
killed and six wounded when a shell hit a packed cafe in the
Kiev-controlled town of Shchastya near rebel-held Luhansk in eastern
Ukraine, a local official said, adding that other shells had struck
elsewhere in the town.
"The town's heating system is broken, power lines are damaged as
well as the water supply ... So this is how a comprehensive
ceasefire is prepared for," the head of the Kiev-controlled
administration, Hennadiy Moskal, said online.
The rebels accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the separatist
stronghold of Donetsk and the town of Horlivka, where they said on
their website that three children had been killed.
They gave no details, and it was not immediately possible to verify
any of the reports, which followed threats of further sanctions on
Moscow from the United States and Europe if the rebels seize more
territory.
 The deal, sealed in person by the leaders of Germany and France on
Friday after more than 16 hours of intense, overnight talks in
Minsk, capital of Belarus, with the Russian and Ukrainian
presidents, was soon overshadowed by the clashes on the ground in
rebel-held eastern Ukraine.
"This night was not a calm one," the Ukrainian military said on
Friday. "The enemy shelled positions of the 'anti-terrorist
operation' forces with the same intensity as before."
A Ukrainian military spokesman said eight soldiers had been killed
and 34 wounded in the past 24 hours.
Fighting had been particularly intense around Debaltseve, a railway
junction linking the two main rebel areas, where separatists had
used rockets and artillery to attack government forces holding the
town, the statement said.
DISAGREEMENTS
Away from the battlefield, disagreements surfaced over whether a
rebel amnesty or the release of a Ukrainian pilot detained by Russia
were part of the ceasefire deal.
Western diplomats said the European Union would go ahead on Monday
with a new round of sanctions against 19 Ukrainian separatists and
Russians, despite the ceasefire.
NATO and the United States said the fighting ran counter to the
spirit, if not the letter of the agreement and U.S. officials said
further sanctions were still on the table.
At an EU summit in Brussels, the leaders of Germany, France and the
European Council also said new sanctions were possible.
On Friday, the Kremlin said the four leaders remained in touch over
the Ukraine crisis, and that he expected a phone conversation in the
coming days, RIA news agency reported.
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Spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said Moscow expected all points of the
deal to be implemented, but that Russia had not promised to free
detained Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko. Savchenko's case would
be decided by a Russian court, he said.
Ukraine, for its part, said it had not agreed to an amnesty for all
rebels, drawing an angry response from the separatists.
Sanctions by the EU and United States have piled intense economic
pressure on Russia's economy, which has also been hit by a collapse
in oil prices.
Russia's economy minister said he hoped sanctions would be lifted
soon.
VAST "BUFFER ZONE"
On Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the agreement
with Russia on Ukraine as a good start but said undertakings must
now be respected.
Ukraine reported a new, mass influx of Russian armor into rebel-held
eastern Ukraine as the agreement was being finalised.
The deal calls for the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front
line when and if the ceasefire has taken hold, and constitutional
reform to give eastern Ukraine more autonomy.
The rebels have advanced far past an earlier ceasefire deal, agreed
in September, and the new agreement appears to envisage them pulling
their guns back around 75 km, to take them back behind it, while
Ukrainian guns would move 25 km back.
This would leave a buffer zone some 50 km wide, a challenge for the
monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe who are expected to patrol it.
It also appears to take yet more territory outside Kiev's control.
The White House, under pressure from Congress to provide arms to the
stretched Ukrainian military, said the deal was "potentially
significant" but urged Russia to withdraw soldiers and equipment,
and give Ukraine back control over its border.
Russia denies arming the rebels and sending troops to fight
alongside them, despite what Ukraine and its Western allies say is
overwhelming evidence.
(Additional reporting by Alessandra Prentice, Gabriela Baczynska and
Alexander Winning; writing by Philippa Fletcher; editing by Peter
Millership and Giles Elgood)
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