Ukraine's rebels disavowed a new truce hours after it took effect, saying it did not apply to the town where most fighting has taken place in recent weeks.
Guns fell abruptly silent at midnight across much of eastern Ukraine in line with the ceasefire agreement, but the pro-Russian rebels announced they would not observe the truce at Debaltseve, where Ukraine army forces have been encircled.
"Of course we can open fire (on Debaltseve). It is our territory," Eduard Basurin, a senior rebel commander, told Reuters news agency.
"The territory is internal: Ours. And internal is internal. But along the line of confrontation there is no shooting."
Reuters journalists in nearby towns heard volleys of artillery from the direction of Debaltseve in the morning after a night that had been mostly quiet.
Ukrainian forces have been holding out in the town for weeks, astride a railway junction in a pocket between the two main rebel strongholds.
The United States said Russia's regular military, armed with tanks and missile launchers, carried out an operation in the days before the truce to encircle Debaltseve.
Reuters journalists have reported seeing armoured columns of troops without insignia arriving in the area in recent days.
Elsewhere in eastern Ukraine the ceasefire was met by abrupt silence at midnight. In Donetsk, the main rebel stronghold, there have been reports of artillery bombardment halted and no firing overnight, after intense final hours before the ceasefire when shells had exploded every few seconds.
A Reuters photographer in government-held territory also said constant bombardment had halted overnight, although he heard a volley of artillery around 7am from the direction of Debaltseve.
The Ukrainian government said this morning the ceasefire was being "generally observed". Its forces had been shelled ten times in the hours since the truce took effect, but it described those incidents as "localised" rather than regular.
Nine of its soldiers were killed on Saturday but none since the truce took effect, a spokesman said earlier.
Hennadiy Moskal, the head of the Kiev-controlled administration for Luhansk, one of the rebellious provinces, said most hot spots had been quiet but a complete ceasefire had not come into effect.
A Ukrainian staff officer stationed near Debaltseve said: "The general level (of attacks) has decreased, although there are violations."
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, wearing the uniform of the armed forces supreme commander, said in a midnight televised address in the capital Kiev he had ordered troops to stop firing in line with the truce.
He said there was still alarm over the situation around Debaltseve.
The ceasefire, negotiated in four-power talks on Thursday, foresees creation of a neutral buffer zone and withdrawal of heavy weapons.
More than 5,000 people have been killed in a conflict that has caused the worst crisis in Russia-West relations since the Cold War.
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