REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KIEV -- Ukraine's military said on Sunday its forces had come under fire 60 times in the hours since a ceasefire came into force.

Military spokesman Anatoliy Stelmakh told AFP that the key strategic town of Debaltseve remained the scene of most of the clashes and that pro-Russian rebels had fired Grad rockets at Ukrainian positions there.

Pro-russian rebels have practically cut off Ukrainian forces inside Debaltseve -- a railway hub linking the separatist centres Donetsk and Lugansk -- after days of ferocious battles in the run-up to the truce.

A rebel military spokesman accused government troops of shelling insurgent positions as they tried unsuccessfully to break out of the town.

Despite the ongoing firing around Debaltseve, the overall level of fighting around the conflict zone had dropped significantly after the truce came into force at 2200 GMT on Saturday, Stelmakh said.

Fighting around the important government-held port city of Mariupol had subsided completely, he said.

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