War-Torn Ukraine Tests Sweeping New Ceasefire

Ukraine and pro-Russian insurgents on Tuesday were preparing to put to the test a comprehensive ceasefire aimed at calming an upsurge of violence that has eroded trust between Moscow and the West.

Uncertainty swirled around the deal in the early morning hours on what the government has dubbed "a day of silence." 

While Agence France Presse reporters said fighting in the main rebel-held city of Donetsk had stopped abruptly at dawn after a night of artillery exchanges, shooting could still be heard from more distant parts of the frontline.

"On the initiative of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, a ceasefire regime has been implemented on all positions of (government) forces," said a statement on the Ukrainian military's Facebook account on Tuesday. 

Insurgency commanders have promised to respect the ceasefire. But some rebels said broader peace talks that Kiev had hoped to hold in the Belarussian capital Minsk on Tuesday would not be possible until Friday -- an apparent attempt to keep some level of control over a process which has been largely orchestrated over their heads by Moscow.

"We will take part in the negotiations," Donetsk separatist co-leader Denis Pushilin told AFP by telephone.

"But for them to be more successful, they must take place on Friday."

The pro-Western Ukrainian leadership needs calm in the east so it can focus on long-delayed economic reforms to dig the country out of effective bankruptcy and open the way for more global aid.

A team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) arrives in Kiev on Tuesday to assess Ukraine's implementation of deeply unpopular austerity measures it has demanded in return for $17 billion in emergency aid.

Tuesday's "day of silence" across the war zone is due to be followed by a withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line -- should the separatists also put down their guns.

While observers wait to see if a ceasefire emerges, fighting has continued right up to the last moment. 

Local authorities on Monday reported the deaths of at least 12 civilians over a bloody weekend in which government forces and organized militias exchanged volleys of Grad rocket fire across the devastated industrial east.

Two civilians were reported dead and 10 injured from overnight shelling in Ukrainian areas on Tuesday. 

- 'Must not stand' - 

The latest peace efforts come after an unprecedented level of criticism directed at Russian President Vladimir Putin from Germany.  

German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- once one of Europe's more moderate voices on Russian affairs -- blamed the unrest on an increasingly isolated Kremlin trying to destabilise eastern Europe and prevent countries in the region growing closer to the EU.

She also defended the sanctions that Brussels and Washington have slapped on Russia for its alleged attempts to splinter its western neighbour in reprisal for the February ouster of a Moscow-backed president.

Russia has struck back by banning Western food imports and imposing other restrictions that have hurt European farmers and provoked a minor rebellion from businesses in countries such as France and Germany.

The diplomatic war of words and jostling for position has intensified as the prospect of new Ukrainian peace talks nears.

"The desire to rip (ex-Soviet republics) away from Russia has always been one of America's top foreign policy priorities," Russian Deputy Foreign Sergei Ryabkov told a Monday session of parliament.

"But since the start of the year, this desire has surfaced with renewed strength and in an especially aggressive manner," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Ryabkov as saying.

- 'Ukraine ready for silence' - 

Ukrainian Defence Minister Stepan Poltorak stressed that Kiev's forces intended to halt fire on Tuesday even if the Minsk gathering was delayed for a few days.

"The Ukrainian armed forces are ready for silence," he said during a joint press appearance with visiting Canadian Defence Minister Rob Nicholson on Monday.

The Minsk negotiations are supposed to reinforce an earlier peace deal reached in the same city on September 5 that failed to halt the fighting. 

The United Nations says another 1,000 lives have been lost since -- making many sceptical about the prospects of the latest peace efforts.

U.N. estimates put the total death toll from the eight-month conflict at more than 4,300. But the number of rebels killed has never been firmly established and some believe the true numbers are much higher.