Fighting Continues in Eastern Ukraine Despite Ceasefire Deal

Fighting raged around a key railway hub in eastern Ukraine on Monday despite a ceasefire agreement that officially went into force a day earlier.

The BBC quoted the Ukrainian military command as saying the pro-Russian rebels had attacked 112 times since early Sunday with most attacks concentrated in the area of Debaltseve, a railway junction still held by Kiev government forces that is connecting the main rebel centres of Donetsk and Luhansk.

OSCE observers haven't managed yet to reach Debaltseve. They said they were denied access by the rebels on Sunday.

According to Reuters news reports from the area, at least six tanks as well as armored personnel carriers and artillery pieces could be seen in woods near Vuhlehirsk, 10 kilometres west of Debaltseve.

The ongoing fighting has stalled further implementation of the peace plan on both sides. The Ukrainian military said they were unable to withdraw their heavy weapons from Debaltseve, as set out in the agreement reached in Belarus' capital Minsk, without a ceasefire that held.

Meanwhile, the separatists accused the Ukrainian military of shelling the airport of the city of Donetsk.

Five Ukrainian soldiers were killed in action at Shirokyne, near the Azov Sea port city of Mariupol in the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian military said.

Late on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin talked over the phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko on measures to implement the Minsk agreements. The discussion focussed on the situation in the area of Debaltseve, as well as the OSCE mission's role in the process of monitoring compliance with the ceasefire agreement, according to a statement by the Kremlin.