A series of blasts near to a flashpoint city in east Ukraine has threatened a fragile ceasefire agreement little more than a day after it was put in place.
A volunteer battalion of Ukrainian fighters said that their positions had come under Grad rocket fire in the city of Mariupol, which was rocked by sustained late night explosions.
Witnesses reported hearing loud explosions from the eastern outskirts of Mariupol late on Saturday night, where pro-Kiev fighters who are holding the city maintain a defensive line against rebels backed by Russia.
“There has been an artillery attack. We received a number of impacts. We have no information about casualties,” a Ukrainian officer said.
A checkpoint controlled by Ukrainian nationalists was seen apparently ablaze, while a witness also reported seeing pro-Russian rebel trucks and tanks on the move near the city.
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Separatist troops, meanwhile, blamed pro-government forces for the blasts.
It was the first serious violation of a truce agreed by both Kiev and Moscow, which offered a route out of five months of turmoil that have claimed more than 2,500 lives and triggered the worst crisis in East-West relations since the Cold War.
Hours earlier, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko had agreed that the truce was “generally being observed”.
The renewed violence threatened a repeat of the unilateral ceasefire called by Kiev in June, which collapsed within days.
It comes after EU leaders on Friday agreed to bring in new sanctions against Russia which come into force on Monday despite the ceasefire agreement.
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Russia warned that it would respond if the EU imposes more sanctions, accusing Brussels of supporting the “party of war” in Kiev.
Moscow has maintained that it has not sent troops over the border, though Nato says that thousands of Russian soldiers are fighting in Ukraine.
The 12-point ceasefire plan marks a climbdown for Kiev, with Mr Poroshenko pushed into cutting a deal as rebel fighters regained ground in a push back against government forces.
It called for a halt to hostilities and a withdrawal of heavy weapons, as well as allowing for the introduction of humanitarian aid and monitors.
Terms calling for fighters to remain in their positions allowed pro-Russian rebels to remain in control of a region that includes the cities of Donetsk and Lukhansk and accounts for one sixth of Ukraine’s population.
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Peace had held in the region since the truce came into force on Friday afternoon.
Fighters on both sides, however, have expressed doubts over whether it would hold.
Pro-Russian separatists insisted that they would not give up their ambitions for an independent state in the industrial east with binding diplomatic and trade ties to Russia.
“We want our own president, our own currency and our own banking system,” a pro-Russian guerrilla named Oleg said in the town of Yasynuvata in the Donetsk region.
“This is the only way. There is no other alternative.”