Pro-Russian rebels reject truce at 'encircled' town

Pro-Russia rebels have said they will not observe the truce in Debaltseve, a key railway hub in eastern Ukraine between the two rebel strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk, where rebels claim they have encircled thousands of Ukrainian soldiers.

"Of course we can open fire [on Debaltseve.] It is our territory," Eduard Basurin, a senior rebel commander, told Reuters.

"The territory is internal: ours. And internal is internal. But along the line of confrontation there is no shooting," he said.

Rebels stressed that any attempt to move the allegedly trapped Ukrainian troops would be seen as an act of aggression.

Rebels have also refused to allow monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to reach Debaltseve, said Ertugrul Apakan, the head of the OSCE mission in Ukraine, said on Sunday. In an online briefing, Apakan said that shooting had continued in Debaltseve and Luhansk.

Soldiers 'resupplied'

Despite the rebels' claim, a fragile ceasefire that began early Sunday nonetheless appeared to be holding in most areas, according to both government and rebel sources.

"In general the situation in east Ukraine appears to be heading towards stabilization," said Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian army.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a live television broadcast on Sunday that the road to Debaltseve remained open and that government troops there have been resupplied with ammunition.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on Basurin's remarks, but said Sunday that accords underpinning the truce must be "unconditionally observed."

"All the sequences of actions have been mentioned in the package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreement. All those terms have to be observed unconditionally," Peskov said.

He did not mention whether Moscow believes that the truce applies to Debaltseve.

'This is all for show'

Maxim, a rebel fighter at a checkpoint on a road from Donetsk to the government-held city of Dnepropetrovsk, told Reuters that he did not expect the ceasefire to hold.

"Truce? I doubt it. Maybe two-three days and then they will start shooting again. This is all for show. The OSCE is driving around here, so of course they are being quiet," he told Reuters.

"I have trouble believing that the ceasefire will be respected for long. But even if it lasts a few days, then that isn't bad," said Andrei, a 77-year-old pensioner from Donetsk, speaking with AFP.

"That would maybe allow us to re-establish water, gas and electricity to our house after it was cut off since bombing in January."

UN Security Council to meet

Both rebels and the Kyiv government are under strong international pressure to stick to the latest ceasefire deal brokered in Minsk last week between representatives of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine.

The UN Security Council is expected to meet in an emergency session Sunday to discuss the end of the conflict which has already killed more than 5,000 people.

dj/cmk (Reuters, AFP, Interfax)