Ukraine cease-fire holds, except in one spot

LUHANSKE, Ukraine - A cease-fire that went into effect Sunday in eastern Ukraine appeared largely to be holding, officials said, except for around the strategic railway hub of Debaltseve.

Heavy fog shrouding sodden fields muffled the sound of artillery, but regular shelling could still be heard Sunday from Luhanske, a town about 9 miles to the northwest. Associated Press journalists were blocked from moving closer by Ukrainian troops, who said it was not safe to travel ahead.

The cease-fire has kindled slender hopes of reprieve from the conflict between the government troops and Russian-backed separatists that has claimed more than 5,300 lives since it began in April.

International attention will be focused in the coming days on Debaltseve, where Ukrainian forces have for weeks been fending off severe onslaughts from the rebels. The town is a railway link between the main separatist-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.

A spokesman for the Ukrainian army general staff, Vladislav Seleznyov, said during a morning briefing that the cease-fire had largely been upheld after it went into effect at midnight. Shelling was noted 10 times, he said, with all but one incident occurring in the Debaltseve area.

The rebels also accused the Ukrainians of deploying artillery in the Debaltseve area shortly after midnight.

Donetsk, the separatist stronghold, was quiet on Sunday morning with no shelling from government forces, the Donetsk News Agency, a separatist mouthpiece, reported, citing the city administration.

In the Luhansk region, two civilians were killed shortly after midnight in the town of Popasne as a result of shelling, regional authorities said. The town lies directly on the front line, only a few kilometers (a mile or two) from the nearest separatist positions.

The shells hit a shop, a medical clinic and a private residence, Luhansk Governor Hennadiy Moskal said in a statement. "The owners of the house - an 87-year-old man and a 67-year-old woman - died under the ruins," Moskal said.

The Interior Ministry said Grad rockets were fired at the town from territory under rebel control. Moskal said in his statement that more blasts could be heard near Popasne at around 9:30 a.m.

The hours before the cease-fire were marked by ferocious battles around Debaltseve, as Ukrainian armed forces undertook desperate attempts to gain control over a highway linking the town to their rearguard.

The U.S. State Department said images from eastern Ukraine offer "credible pieces of evidence" that the Russian military has deployed larger amounts of artillery and multiple rocket launchers around Debaltseve to shell Ukrainian forces.

"We are confident that these are Russian military, not separatist systems," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement Saturday.

Speaking to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov by telephone Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed concern about what he called efforts by Russia and the separatists to cut off Debaltseve in advance of the cease-fire.

Separatist fighters insisted they had fully encircled Debaltseve, which they said allows them to claim the territory as theirs.

Eduard Basurin, a senior rebel commander, told Reuters: "Of course we can open fire (on Debaltseve). It is our territory. The territory is internal: ours. And internal is internal. But along the line of confrontation there is no shooting."

But Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, as he issued the cease-fire order in a live television broadcast, said the road to the town remained open and that Ukrainian troops there had been resupplied with ammunition.

Russia has repeatedly denied Western claims that it has sent troops and equipment to aid the rebels. But on Saturday, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, posted on Twitter what he said were satellite photos showing Russian artillery systems near the town of Lomuvatka, 12 miles northeast of Debaltseve. The images could not immediately be verified.

In a telephone call with Poroshenko hours before the start of the cease-fire period, President Barack Obama expressed his "deep concern about the ongoing violence, particularly in and around Debaltseve."

The White House said in a statement that the two leaders "emphasized the pressing need" for all parties to implement the cease-fire and agreed to remain in contact in the coming days. Obama also spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who took a lead role in negotiating the cease-fire agreement.

The deal was hammered out in a marathon talks last week between Merkel and her counterparts from Ukraine, Russia and France in the Belarusian capital, Minsk.

Cessation of hostilities is only the first in a series of planned steps agreed to in Minsk.

Withdrawals of heavy weaponry from the front line, creating a zone roughly 30-85 miles wide, depending on the caliber of the weapons, are to begin Monday and be completed in two weeks. No provisions are envisioned for the withdrawal of troops.

The peace plan also requires the Ukrainian government to resume paying pensions and state benefits to citizens in rebel-held territory. Ukraine's financial blockade against the rebels has led to a catastrophic collapse in living standards in eastern Ukraine, depriving the poorest of any immediate means of support.

The fighting started in April after armed pro-Russian separatists took control of towns and official buildings in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The seizures began after Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych was driven from power in the wake of months of protests in the capital, Kiev.

The separatists claim the new Ukrainian authorities are fascist-inspired and aim to suppress the heavily ethnic Russian population in the east.