KIEV: Kiev said on Monday it rejected a proposal from pro-Russian rebels to create a safe corridor for government troops out of the encircled town of Debaltseve in eastern Ukraine, the focus of heavy fighting despite a ceasefire deal.

A two-day-old truce was under threat Monday with fighting unabated around a strategic railway hub and other violations reported, putting in peril an agreement to start withdrawing heavy weapons from the frontline.

The European Union, which backed the fresh peace effort brought about last week through hard-won mediation by France and Germany, pleaded that “the shooting needs to stop.”

The bloc also imposed fresh sanctions on Russia, which it accuses of militarily backing the pro-Russian rebels fighting Ukraine’s government troops in a bid to carve out separate republics in the east.

Russia, which denies involvement, vowed an “appropriate response” to the EU move.

Kiev officials and rebels accused each other of ongoing attacks that prevented them from pulling back tanks, rockets and artillery from the frontline in Ukraine’s east, near the insurgent-held cities of Donetsk and Lugansk.

The withdrawal of heavy weapons was meant to begin by midnight Monday.

The worst of the violence was happening around the town of Debaltseve, a key transport hub between Donetsk and Lugansk, where thousands of government troops were mostly surrounded by heavily armed rebels.

“Non-stop explosions” were heard there on Monday, said Natalia Karabuta, a municipal official who had fled the town. She added that around 5,000 civilians were trapped inside Debaltseve with little food and water.

An Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe team tasked with monitoring the cease-fire has been unable to enter Debaltseve because of the ongoing hostilities.

A Ukrainian military spokesman, Vladyslav Seleznyov, said “there is no question at the moment of us withdrawing heavy weapons” because of persistent rebel attacks.

Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said Ukrainian troops “are fully observing the cease-fire” but have been attacked 112 times by the separatists. Other officials said five Ukrainian troops have been killed and 25 wounded since the truce came into force on Sunday.

Regardless of the fraught situation, European officials described the cease-fire, aimed at ending the 10-month-old conflict that has killed more than 5,600 people, according to the UN, as being generally complied with.





It “appears to be largely holding despite a number of incidents,” European Commission spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said in Brussels on Monday.

However she remonstrated that “it is imperative the cease-fire is fully implemented. A cease-fire is a cease-fire; it means the shooting needs to stop.”

Western relations with Moscow are plumbing Cold War lows since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula last year.

Europe and the US have dismissed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s denials of having a hand in Ukraine’s eastern insurrection and noted that he made similar protestations over Crimea before finally admitting he had ordered in Russian troops there.