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 A truce to end fighting that has killed more than 5,600 people
appeared stillborn last week after rebels ignored it to capture the
strategic town of Debaltseve in a punishing defeat for Kiev.
Nevertheless, the peace deal's European sponsors still hold out hope
it can be salvaged, now that the Moscow-backed separatists have
achieved that objective.
Kiev says it fears the rebels, backed by reinforcements of Russian
troops, are planning to advance deeper into territory the Kremlin
calls "New Russia". Moscow denies aiding the rebels.
Fighting has diminished since Kiev's forces abandoned Debaltseve in
defeat last Wednesday, and there were hopeful signs for the truce
over the weekend, with an overnight exchange of around 200 prisoners
late on Saturday and an agreement on Sunday to begin pulling back
artillery from the front.
But Kiev said on Monday that it still could not start the artillery
withdrawal.
"Given that the positions of Ukrainian servicemen continue to be
shelled, there can not yet be any talk of pulling back weapons,"
spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said in a televised briefing.
 Anatoly Stelmakh, another military spokesman, said rebel forces had
attacked the village of Shyrokyne overnight, along the coast on the
road to Mariupol, a port of half a million that Kiev fears could be
the next big rebel target.
"The fighters have not stopped their attempts to storm our positions
in Shyrokyne, in the direction of Mariupol. At midnight the armed
groups again attempted unsuccessfully to attack our soldiers. The
battle lasted half an hour."
Rebel commander Eduard Basurin denied the fighters had launched any
such attack, and said the situation was calm. "At the moment all is
quiet, there is no shelling," he told Reuters.
In the biggest rebel stronghold Donetsk, occasional artillery fire
could be heard through the night and on Monday morning, although it
was not clear who was firing and it was far less intense than before
the truce.
The separatist press service DAN reported two homes destroyed by
shelling on the city's outskirts overnight.
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Nearly a million people have been driven from their homes by the war
between pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine and government
forces. Last week's ceasefire was reached after the rebels abandoned
a previous truce to launch their advance, arguing that previous
battle lines had left their civilians vulnerable to government
shelling.
"I hope, I just hope, in the truce. No one knows what will happen
with the way the sides are behaving," said Donetsk resident Sergei,
52. "Now it's quiet, it's ok on the streets. You want such quiet. It
was difficult to sleep before, not knowing whether you would wake
up."
Kiev says the rebels are reinforcing near Mariupol for a possible
assault on the port, the biggest city in the two rebellious
provinces still in government hands. Defence analyst Dmytro Tymchuk,
who has close ties to the military, said rebels had brought 350
fighters and 20 armoured vehicles including six tanks to the area.
Kiev also fears unrest could spread from the war zone to other parts
of the mainly Russian-speaking east, where its troops are firmly in
control and most residents are loyal but violent separatist
demonstrations have occasionally flared in the past year.
Two people were killed on Sunday in Kharkiv, 200 km (140 miles) from
the war zone, in a blast at a demonstration marking the anniversary
of the deaths of 100 protesters a year ago in an uprising that
toppled the country's pro-Moscow leader. Kiev said it had arrested
four suspects who had received weapons and instructions in Russia.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev and Anton Zverev in Donetsk;
Writing by Alessandra Prentice and Peter Graff; Editing by Sonya
Hepinstall)
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