Combatants in the eastern Ukraine war ignored an impending cease-fire and escalated the fighting on Friday, as Russian-backed rebels sought to capture an important railway hub before the truce agreement takes effect.Artillery shelling and gunfire reverberated in the area around the railway hub, Debaltseve, just south of this front-line town of Artemivsk, with reports that at least 18 people had been killed.
In a hospital courtyard here, ambulance crews hurriedly wheeled about bloodied, freshly wounded soldiers.
Medical helicopters buzzed in and out through the day. At a school, teachers herded children indoors when the booms of artillery started rattling windows.
The escalation erupted a day after the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany negotiated a new cease-fire agreement, the second in the nearly year-old war. The new pact left many issues unresolved, and many diplomats consider it fragile.