Ukraine tense one year after Maidan shootings

Ukraine's pro-EU government claimed that suspects arrested after Sunday's bombing in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv had received weapons instruction in Russia.

A spokesman for Ukraine's SBU security service, Markian Lubkivskiy, said four detained suspects had trained in the Russian city of Belgorod. Police said 15 people were also wounded when a device was thrown from a car into a crowd.

The blast shattered one in a series of rallies as pro-Western Ukrainians marked one year since Kyiv's Maidan square uprising that resulted in 100 deaths and the departure of pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych.

European leaders attend rally

Sunday's "march of dignity" in Kyiv, led by Ukraine's current pro-EU President Petro Porosenko, included the Polish European Council President Donald Tusk, German President Joachim Gauck and President Dalia Grybauskaite of the EU Baltic nation of Lithuania (all pictured).

Joined by thousands of marchers, they walked past a memorial for those killed last year toward the square. Many demonstrators carried placards with the text "We are Europe."

Ceasefire still uncertain

Ceasefire violations had continued early Sunday in eastern Ukraine despite a peace plan signed 10 days ago by pro-Russian separatists and Kyiv.

Explosions were heard around Donetsk, the main rebel-held city, but the level of firing appeared to be lower than a week ago.

Rebel spokesman Eduard Basurin said pullbacks of heavy weapons by both sides were due to take place between Sunday and March 7.

There was no immediate confirmation that these had begun.

Basurin did not specify whether rebels had made any moves. Ukrainian military spokesman Colonel Andriy Lysenko spoke of a weapons pullback but did not give further details at a briefing.

A buffer zone of between 50 and 140 kilometers (31-87 miles) is supposed to emerge as a key element of the peace agreement reached 10 days ago in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, during talks that included the leaders of Russia, France and Germany.

Steinmeier watching Mariupol

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who completed a trip to central Africa on Sunday, told Germany's Bild newspaper that any attack on the Ukrainian government-held eastern port city of Mariupol would breach the ceasefire accord.

"An advance on Mariupol would clearly be in breach of the agreements," the minister was quoted as saying by the news agency AFP in pre-released comments ahead of Monday's edition.

Ahead of talks between foreign ministers due in Paris on Tuesday, Steinmeier also urged his Russian counterpart to exert more pressure on the separatist rebels.

"I've also said that to my Russian colleague in the many telephone calls of recent days," Steinmeier said.

Russia has repeatedly denied that it is providing military backing for the separatists.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last Wednesday that rebels had publicly expressed a "readiness" to withdraw heavy weapons from eastern Ukraine's frontlines.

ipj/gsw (dpa, AP, AFP, Reuters)