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 A Reuters witness near the front line said artillery rounds rocked
the town of Debaltseve every five seconds and black smoke rose
skywards, despite a truce that has eased fighting in many areas
since the European-brokered deal took effect on Sunday.
The rebels said they had captured parts of Debaltseve, which sits on
a strategic railway junction, and that some Ukrainian soldiers had
surrendered, but Kiev denied this.
"At the moment there is fierce fighting on the outskirts of the
town. There are clashes around the station. But our forces are
holding their positions and they are completely within their rights
to open fire in response," Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy
Lysenko said.
Hopes that the deal reached last Thursday would end a conflict that
has killed more than 5,000 people were always low after a rebel
advance in January scuppered an earlier truce.
But the ferocity of the fighting at Debaltseve was unexpected and
has heightened concerns in Kiev and the West that the separatists
and Russian President Vladimir Putin want to cement the latest rebel
gains before peace takes hold.
 Military trucks and tanks came and went in the largely destroyed
village of Nikishine as the rebels pounded nearby Debaltseve with
Grad rockets, heavy artillery and mortar bombs.
Palls of smoke hung over Debaltseve, which has a peacetime
population of about 25,000 and has been under fire for weeks.
Monitors from the OSCE security group were expected to try to reach
the besieged town after Germany said it had agreed steps with the
leaders of Russia and Ukraine to ensure they had "free access" in
the east.
But a new call by Berlin for peace and for the withdrawal of heavy
weapons to start as scheduled on Tuesday under the peace deal,
reached at all-night talks in the Belarussian capital Minsk on
Thursday, fell largely on deaf ears.
"We do not have the right (to stop fighting for Debaltseve). It's
even a moral thing. It's internal territory," said Denis Pushilin, a
senior separatist representative, setting the goal of "destroying
the enemy's fighting positions".
WITHDRAWAL OF BIG GUNS STALLS
The leader of one of the two rebel-held regions in the east,
Luhansk, said separatist fighters had started withdrawing heavy
weapons. But there was no sign of this in areas held by separatists
in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.
"We will not do anything unilaterally. That would make our soldiers
targets," Pushilin told Reuters in the city of Donetsk.
Ukraine's military reiterated in Kiev that its forces could not pull
back their big guns until there was a total truce.
"In the last 24 hours there has been firing so there is no ceasefire
and so there is no precondition for a pull-back of heavy weapons,"
Lysenko said.
The European Union kept pressure on Russia and the rebels by
announcing a new list of separatists and Russians targeted with
sanctions on Monday. Moscow promised an "adequate" response.
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The United States said it was "gravely concerned" by the fighting at
Debaltseve and that it was monitoring reports of a new column of
Russian military equipment heading to the region.
"We call on Russia and the separatists it backs to halt all attacks
immediately," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Russia denies sending arms or troops to back the rebels in mainly
Russian-speaking areas of east Ukraine despite what Kiev and the
West say is clear proof.
The separatists said soon after the ceasefire came into effect they
had no intention of observing it at Debaltseve, where they have been
advancing since January.
Fighting began in east Ukraine after the overthrow of a
Moscow-backed president in Kiev a year ago and Russia's annexation
of the Crimea peninsula a month later.
Several hundred thousand refugees have fled the conflict, which has
devastated Ukraine's already struggling economy, and relations
between Russia and the West are at their worst since the Cold War.
The West fears Putin, who has called parts of Ukraine "New Russia",
wants the conflict to fester for years so that Kiev cannot control
east Ukraine and is prevented from joining NATO, while Russia can
retain influence in the industrial east.
Moscow accuses the West of waging a proxy war in Ukraine to seek
"regime change" in Moscow and "contain" Russia.
Western countries reserve the option of expanding economic sanctions
on Moscow over the crisis, hoping growing financial problems in
Russia will force Putin to use his influence with the rebels to stop
the fighting. Washington has also held out the threat of giving Kiev
lethal weapons if peace moves fail.
(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Natalia Zinets, Alessandra
Prentice and Richard Balmforth in Kiev, Polina Devitt in Moscow and
Madeline Chambers in Berlin; Writing by Timothy Heritage)
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