(USA TODAY) -- A cease-fire that came into effect in eastern Ukraine on Sunday appeared largely to be holding, officials said, with the exception of the area around the strategic railway hub of Debaltseve.
It comes after accusations of fresh attacks were made by government troops and Russian-backed separatists, within two hours of the start of the truce.
Ukrainian security services chief Valentyn Nalyvaichenko said one infringement was reported about 50 minutes after the deadline — 5 p.m. ET (midnight local time) — and artillery salvos were fired from an area that Nalyvaichenko said is under the control of a Cossack unit manned by Russian citizens.
Meanwhile, rebels accused the Ukrainians of deploying artillery shortly after midnight.
Vladislav Seleznyov, a spokesman for the Ukrainian army general staff, said during a morning briefing Sunday that the cease-fire had largely been upheld so far. He said shelling was noted 10 times, with all but one incident occurring in the Debaltseve area.
"Yesterday and the day before were hot, they were shooting from here and from there," Donetsk resident Rodion Biralyan, 50, told Reuters. "But today is quiet and calm. All is good."
Heavy artillery fire roared Saturday as separatist forces barraged Debaltseve and Mariupol, a seaport, that if controlled by separatists could be a step toward establishing a corridor between mainland Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed last year.
Ukraine charges that Debaltseve should remain under its control, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the rebels consider Ukrainian forces there to be surrounded and expect them to surrender.
The U.S. State Department said images from eastern Ukraine offer "credible pieces of evidence" that the Russian military has deployed larger amounts of artillery and multiple rocket launchers around Debaltseve to shell Ukrainian forces.
"We are confident that these are Russian military, not separatist systems," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement Saturday.
Donetsk, the main large city under separatist control, was quiet on Sunday morning with no shelling from government forces, the Donetsk News Agency, a separatist mouthpiece, reported, citing the city administration.
The hours before the cease-fire were marked by ferocious battles around Debaltseve, as Ukrainian armed forces undertook desperate attempts to gain control over a highway linking the town to their rearguard.
Separatist fighters insist they have fully encircled Debaltseve, which they say allows them to claim the territory as theirs. But Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a televised address that the road to the town remains open and that Ukrainian troops there had been resupplied with ammunition.
A deal brokered Thursday in Minsk, Belarus, among the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany, calls for a cease-fire and the establishment of buffer zones in the eastern part of Ukraine that borders Russia. A similar truce was attempted in September but collapsed. The conflict has killed more than 5,300 people since April.
The United Nations Security Council will meet Sunday to vote on a resolution offered by Russia in support of the cease-fire.
While Russia has offered similar resolutions in the past, this one refers to the "sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," something Western diplomats have insisted that any U.N. resolution reaffirm.
Contributing: Associated Press
