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Ukraine fighting rages ahead of ceasefire

US accuses Russia of fuelling rebel onslaught

AFP, Donetsk
Ferocious fighting raged in Ukraine yesterday, threatening a ceasefire deal as Kiev and the US accused Russia of fuelling a rebel onslaught to grab territory hours before the truce began.
Kiev-loyal regional police chief Vyacheslav Abroskin said constant artillery bombardments were razing the strategic railway hub of Debaltseve, where Ukrainian forces were clinging on.
Ukraine's Azov volunteer battalion also reported fierce clashes just to the east of the vital government-held port city of Mariupol and said that the village of Shyrokyne had been "practically destroyed" by shelling.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko warned Friday that surging fighting had plunged a peace plan reached in Minsk
after marathon talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin into "big danger" before it even got off the ground.
"After Minsk the offensive operation of Russia intensified significantly, ” Poroshenko said, speaking in English.
The ceasefire, due to take effect from 2200 GMT yesterday, will be the first test of the commitment by Kiev and proRussian separatists to the freshly-inked peace plan.
But with Kiev and Washington claiming Russia was spearheading a separatist push to conquer more territory and government forces digging in, there were fears over whether the truce would be observed at all.
Poroshenko was to speak with US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande
yesterday. The UN Security Council was meanwhile expected to meet today for an emergency session, diplomats said.
The United States said the Russian military had deployed large amounts of artillery and multiple rocket launcher systems and was using them to shell Ukrainian positions.
Washington's ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt claimed on Twitter that the separatists now had more heavy weapons than some European members ofNATO.
Obama has warned he could start arms supplies to Ukraine if the new peace deal collapses.
Moscow's foreign ministry lashed out at Kiev and its Western allies yesterday, saying that they had "begun to distort the contents of the Minsk agreements."