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 Western nations have refused to give up on a peace deal negotiated
last week even though rebels disavowed it to seize the strategic
railway hub of Debaltseve. Thousands of besieged Ukrainian troops
pulled out of the town on Wednesday in one of the worst defeats for
the Kiev government of a 10-month war that has killed more than
5,000 people.
European and U.S. official have expressed the hope that the
ceasefire can now take effect, with rebels that are fighting for
territory the Kremlin calls "New Russia" halting their advance
having achieved their main objective in Debaltseve.
But artillery was still raining down near Debaltseve on Thursday,
and the Ukrainian military said its troops had come under fire
elsewhere from rebels.
Reuters journalists in Vuhlehirsk, a rebel held town near
Debaltseve, said artillery was still thundering down in the area,
although with less intensity than the previous day.
In Artemivsk, a government-held town north of Debaltseve where
Ukrainian troops arrived after evacuating the besieged town,
soldiers spoke of their flight under gunfire as they withdrew on
Wednesday.
 "There are no words to describe it. Along the entire way we were
blanketed with shots, wherever there were trees they fired at us
from machine guns and grenade launchers. They used everything," said
Vadim, a soldier from Ukraine's 30th brigade.
Local military officials said rebels had launched mortar attacks on
government-held positions further south, near the coastal city of
Mariupol, and were building up forces there.
"Right now there are mortar attacks on Shyrokine," a local military
spokesman said by phone, referring to a village about 30 km (19
miles) east of Mariupol, along the coast of the Sea of Azov.
"There is no attempt to seize our positions up to now. The rebels
are bringing up reserves," the spokesman said.
Mariupol, a port of 500,000 people, is the biggest government-held
city in the two rebellious provinces, and Kiev's biggest fear is
that rebels will try to capture it.
FOUR LEADERS TALK
Western countries say Russia is behind the rebel advance, having
deployed thousands of troops with advanced weaponry into eastern
Ukraine to fight on the separatists' behalf.
Moscow denies it is behind the fighting. It sponsored a U.N.
Security Council resolution calling for all sides to stop firing but
never criticized the rebels for advancing on Debaltseve. President
Vladimir Putin told Ukraine hours before the town fell that it
should allow its troops there to surrender.
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The rebels have said Debaltseve is the only place where the
ceasefire does not apply, and have suggested they now intend to
implement the truce. They have announced that they are pulling back
some heavy weapons, which is required under the peace deal.
The deal was agreed at all night talks last week in the Belarus
capital Minsk, with the leaders of France and Germany mediating
between Putin and Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko. Those four
leaders spoke again by phone on Thursday.
French President Francois Hollande's office said the four had
condemned ceasefire breaches and agreed that the package of measures
worked out in Minsk should be implemented "strictly and in their
entirety".
Representatives of the OSCE security group monitoring events in east
Ukraine "should meet the parties on the ground to quickly implement
these measures", it said. The four countries' foreign ministers
would discuss details later on Thursday.
Germany said Putin had promised to push the rebels to exchange
prisoners as agreed under the Minsk deal.
"The prisoner exchange must also start. President Putin agreed to
influence the separatists in this direction," government spokesman
Steffen Seibert said in a statement.
Poroshenko said on his website that he had protested during the call
with Hollande, Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel that no one
should "pretend that what happened in Debaltseve was in line with
the Minsk agreements."
(Additional reporting by Richard Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk in
Kiev; Writing by Timothy Heritage and Peter Graff, editing by Peter
Millership)
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