Two civilians were killed by rebel rocket fire shortly after the start of a ceasefire in east Ukraine on Sunday, a pro-Kiev official said, but fighting reportedly died down across most of the conflict zone.An elderly man and woman died after Grad missile fire hit the town of Popasna in the lugansk region some 20 minutes after a truce came into force at midnight local time, local Governor Gennadiy Moskal said. The firing allegedly came from an area which Kiev says is under the command of a renegade group of Cossack fighters who insist they will not obey rebel leaders’ commands to stop firing.
The ceasefire is the first step in a last-ditch peace plan agreed on Thursday by Kiev and pro-Russian rebels after marathon talks between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France. Elsewhere across the region, Ukraine’s military said its forces had come under fire 10 times but that shooting had tailed off since 3:00 am.
The situation remained most fraught around the key Government-held town of Debaltseve, where pro-Russian rebels battled fiercely to surround Ukranian forces in the hours leading up to the truce.