KIEV, ukraine — The cease-fire period for fighting in Ukraine began one minute after midnight Sunday, bringing slim hopes of a reprieve from a grueling conflict that has killed at least 5,300 people and displaced more than 1 million.
Under an agreement struck last week, Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatist rebels are to begin pulling back their heavy weaponry this week to form a wide buffer zone.
Anxiety remains high that unrest could be sparked anew by rival claims to Debaltseve, a strategic railway hub now controlled by the government.
The hours before the cease-fire were marked by ferocious battles as Ukrainian forces undertook desperate efforts to hold onto Debaltseve, as well as the highway leading north from the town to the Ukrainian rearguard.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko issued the order in a live broadcast for all the country’s armed forces to hold their fire from one minute after midnight Kiev time.
Residents of the city of Donetsk, the separatist stronghold that has been under fire from Ukrainian forces, reported that shells stopped falling immediately after the declaration of the cease-fire.
In an inauspicious omen for the prospects of any cessation of hostilities, rebels have said they will not consider any battles for Debaltseve to be a violation of the cease-fire. Separatists argue that the town has been completely surrounded by their forces and that Ukrainian troops dug in there should surrender.
Poroshenko dismissed suggestions that Ukrainian forces have been isolated, saying that there had been a rotation of troops Saturday and that fresh consignments of ammunition were supplied. Military officials said the front remained unchanged despite all the fighting that took place Saturday.
An undated satellite image released Saturday by the Ukrainian government showed a 3-mile-long cloud of black smoke hovering above Debaltseve, evidence of what it said was the scale of rebel shelling.
Entire swaths of the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk were caught up in artillery duels Saturday.
Officials in the key government-held port city of Mariupol reported an array of artillery attacks hitting areas near the city Saturday morning.
Mariupol is on the Azov Sea, and concerns are strong that the Russian-backed separatists aim to seize it to create a land corridor that runs between mainland Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed 11 months ago.
Russia repeatedly has denied Western claims that it has sent troops and equipment to 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 be verified.
