Donetsk (Ukraine) (AFP) - Pro-Russian rebels and the Ukrainian military accused each other Saturday of breaking a tenuous Kremlin-backed truce only hours after it came into force across the war-battered east.

Although the situation overall appeared to be calm, the rival claims underscore the fragility of the deal that aims to end five months of bloodshed but contains no framework for a political solution to an insurgency still threatening to tear apart Ukraine.

"The ceasefire's terms are not being observed," Vladimir Makovich, a leading member of the "parliament" established by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, told AFP.

He said Ukrainian units had fired several missiles towards rebel positions on the outskirts of the main insurgent bastion of Donetsk just three hours after the truce came into effect at 1500 GMT on Friday.

But Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council spokesman Andriy Lysneko told reporters the military had recorded a "series of provocations by the rebels".

The 12-point pact signed in the Belarussian capital Minsk is the first backed by both the Kremlin and Kiev since bands of Russian-speaking militias seized a string of government buildings across Ukraine's industrial heartland in early April.





- 'Wake-up call' -





But with Western leaders still deeply suspicious of Russia's intentions, the US and EU have agreed to beef up sanctions against Moscow, and NATO approved a rapid reaction force aimed at reassuring jittery eastern European states.

The standoff over Ukraine set off the most serious crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

"This decision sends a clear message -- NATO protects all allies at all times," outgoing chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at the alliance's summit in Wales, describing the Ukraine crisis as a "wake-up call".

Russia warned it would react if the EU imposes more sanctions, accusing Brussels of supporting the "party of war" in Kiev.

Under the terms of the truce brokered by the OSCE European security body, both sides should start pulling back from major flashpoints and exchanging prisoners on Saturday.

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Russia is also being allowed to supply stricken cities with humanitarian aid that Kiev had previously opposed out of fear the convoys could be used to smuggle arms.

But with the rebels winning notable territorial gains in recent days and Russia outwardly defiant over the impact of previous sanctions, there was little sign the ceasefire would lead to a wider political deal.

It has done nothing to calm the separatist passions of insurgents who remain deeply mistrustful of the nationalist-leaning government that took power in February after the ouster of the Russian-backed president.





- Effective control -





Crucially, OSCE officials said the future status of the self-proclaimed rebel republics in Donetsk and Lugansk were not discussed in Minsk.

"The most important thing after the negotiations is (Kiev's) recognition of an independent republic that will be called either the Donetsk People's Republic or Novorossiya (New Russia)," the rebel parliament's speaker Boris Litvinov told AFP.

And in some of the flashpoint cities in eastern Ukraine, residents were doubtful of a lasting peace that could help return their lives to normal.

The fighting has killed well over 2,600 people since Ukraine launched a massive offensive against the separatists in mid-April, and forced at least half a million from their homes.

"It's impossible to trust them (the rebels), they are bandits," said Natalia, a 54-year-old professor staying with friends in the port city of Mariupol after fleeing Donetsk.

"(Ukrainian forces) can only fight them and push them back. There is no other way."

The truce was drawn up after a surge in tensions when the rebels -- reportedly backed by Russian troops and heavy firepower -- launched a lightning counter-offensive across the southeast that turned the tide of the conflict for the Ukrainian army.

It could leave separatists in effective control of a region that accounts for one-sixth of Ukraine's population and a quarter of its exports.





- Eastern towns in ruins -





Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said he was "satisfied" with the agreement.

But it exposes him to charges of signing off on his government's surrender and failing on his May election promise to reunify the nation of 45 million under a single banner of building strong ties with the West.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the agreement required US and EU backing because Kiev could "not manage with Russia on our own".

But Washington appears to have little appetite to become directly involved.

"This obviously is a ceasefire that has to be held between Russia and Ukraine," US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

"This isn't about the United States; this is about them."

Moscow has vowed to fight back against the punitive Western sanctions, accusing NATO of concocting evidence about its role in Ukraine as pretext for expanding its own presence along Russia's western frontier.

"Instead of feverishly searching for ways to hurt the economies of its own countries and Russia, the European Union would do better to work on supporting the economic revival of the Donbass region" of eastern Ukraine, the foreign ministry said Saturday.

The fighting has left dozens of towns in the east in ruins and once-powerful factories and coal mines that form the backbone of Ukraine's economy have ground to a halt.







