At least 25 killed in Ukraine one day after peace deal

The unrest came as Europe warned Russia it risked fresh sanctions if the fighting did not stop.

Local residents look on as firemen try to extinguish a blaze at a home in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine after it was hit by shelling on February 13, 2015. Vasily Maximov/AFP Photo

DONETSK // At least 25 people were killed in eastern Ukraine as fierce fighting surged the day after a peace deal was signed to end the 10-month conflict.

Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said on Friday that 11 soldiers were killed and 40 wounded over the previous 24 hours. Regional authorities loyal to Kiev reported at least seven civilian deaths, while rebels said seven others were killed in artillery attacks on the separatist-held cities of Luhansk and Horlivka.

The unrest came as Europe warned Russia that it risked incurring fresh sanctions if the fighting did not stop.

The rebels and Kiev agreed to a wide-ranging peace plan on Thursday after marathon talks in the Belarusian capital Minsk between the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany.

A ceasefire across the conflict zone was meant to start at midnight Ukraine time tomorrow with both sides having agreed to begin pulling back heavy weaponry from the front line no later than two days after that.

The fragile agreement was seen as the best hope of ending the conflict, in which at least 5,480 people have died and has led to tensions between Russia and the West being elevated to highs not seen since the Cold War, but scepticism remains high after the collapse of a similar previous peace plan.

Kiev and the West accuse Russia of stoking the war in Ukraine by pouring in arms and troops to help the pro-Moscow rebels fighting government troops in the country’s industrial east. Russia denies the charges.

“I don’t want anyone to have any illusions or to seem like I’m naive – there is still an awful long way to go to peace,” Ukraine president Petro Poroshenko told troops near Kiev.

“Nobody is absolutely certain that the conditions for peace signed in Minsk will be fulfilled.”

German chancellor Angela Merkel, warned Russia that the European Union, which has already hit Moscow with crippling sanctions over the crisis, was not ruling out further measures if the truce fails.

“If there are difficulties we wouldn’t rule out other sanctions,” she said in Brussels on Thursday, after the 17-hour Minsk talks with French president Francois Hollande, Russian president Vladimir Putin and Mr Poroshenko.

In the run-up to tomorrow’s ceasefire, Ukraine’s military said on Friday that fighting remained fiercest around the strategic town of Debaltseve.

Ukraine said rebels had fired missiles at the beleaguered railway centre, located midway between the separatist bastions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

In Donetsk, sporadic missile salvos and dozens of artillery bombardments could be heard around the city early Friday morning.

Ukraine warned that the rebels could make a final push to seize Debaltseve and the port city of Mariupol, and has accused Russia of deploying another 50 tanks across the border during the talks in Minsk.

The United States, which has said it could supply Ukraine with weapons if the conflict continues, cautiously welcomed the peace accord, but emphasised the work still to be done in making it stick.

“The true test of today’s accord will be in its full and unambiguous implementation,” the White House said on Thursday, highlighting the need for “restoration of Ukrainian control over its border with Russia.”

The Kremlin said it had supported an immediate ceasefire but that the rebels had pushed for a delay.

“[Mr Putin] put in quite a bit of effort to persuade the rebels to sign the document,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying on Friday by the Kommersant daily.

A Ukrainian source, however, said that Russia initially called for the start of the ceasefire to be delayed by a week.

Rebel leaders have said that the new deal raises hopes of peace but warned there would be no more talking if it fails.

* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting by Associated Press