Ukraine ceasefire appears to hold

Journalists were blocked from moving closer by Ukrainian troops, who said it was not safe to travel ahead.

The ceasefire 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 the ceasefire 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 area shortly after midnight.

Donetsk, the separatist stronghold, was quiet this morning with no shelling from government forces, the Donetsk News Agency, a separatist mouthpiece, reported.

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 from the nearest separatist positions.

The shells hit a shop, a medical clinic and a home, Luhansk governor Hennadiy Moskal said. “The owners of the house – an 87-year-old man and a 67-year-old woman – died under the ruins,” he said.

The Interior Ministry said Grad rockets were fired at the town from territory under rebel control. Mr Moskal said in his statement that more blasts could be heard near Popasne later.

The hours before the ceasefire 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 US 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,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki said yesterday.

Speaking to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov yesterday, US 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 ceasefire.

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

But Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, as he issued the ceasefire 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 yesterday, the US ambassador to Ukraine posted on Twitter what he said were satellite photos showing Russian artillery systems near the town of Lomuvatka.

In a telephone call with Mr Poroshenko hours before the start of the ceasefire, US 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 “emphasised the pressing need” for all parties to implement the ceasefire and agreed to remain in contact in the coming days.

Mr Obama also spoke to German chancellor Angela Merkel, who took a lead role in negotiating the ceasefire agreement.

The deal was hammered out in a marathon talks last week between Mrs 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 in Minsk.

Withdrawals of heavy weaponry from the front line are to begin tomorrow 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.