Ukrainian forces said on Monday they had come under sporadic fire overnight from pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, but Reuters witnesses said overall a ceasefire agreed between the two sides appeared to be holding.
A Reuters reporter heard a short blast of artillery fire early on Monday to the east of Mariupol, a port on the Sea of Azov near the Russian border which saw heavy fighting before Friday evening's ceasefire.
Both the rebels and the Ukrainian military insist they are strictly observing the ceasefire and blame their opponents for any violations.
The Ukrainian military's press centre listed overnight rebel violations of the ceasefire accord in five sites, while the separatists accused government forces of preparing to storm a town near rebel-held Donetsk, the region's industrial hub.
There were no reports of any overnight casualties.
The most serious violation of the ceasefire at the weekend occurred on the eastern edge of government-held Mariupol, where government forces came under artillery attack late on Saturday. One woman was killed and four people injured in the shelling.
Local officials in Mariupol said Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was expected on Monday to visit the city of 500,000, a key port for Ukraine's steel exports. Kiev could not immediately confirm the visit.
Ukrainian media said the rebels had handed over 15 prisoners-of-war, the first stage of an exchange both sides committed to under the terms of the ceasefire accord.
OSCE
The ceasefire in Ukraine has largely held but remains shaky, a senior official of European security watchdog the OSCE said on Monday.
"Overall the ceasefire held even though it is still shaky," Ambassador Thomas Greminger of Switzerland, the current chair of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told an extraordinary meeting of the 57-nation OSCE. He said the next days would be crucial.
The has OSCE has about 250 monitors deployed in Ukraine.
DEATH TOLL
The number of people killed in the Ukraine conflict has risen above 3,000, if the victims of the MH17 plane crash are included, a senior U.N. human rights official said on Monday.
Ivan Simonovic, U.N. Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights, told an extraordinary meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe that the registered number of people killed since the conflict erupted in April was now 2,729.
The number rose to above 3,000 if the 298 victims of the MH17 crash were included, as they should be, he said.
On Aug. 29, the same U.N. official said a total of 2,593 people, including civilians as well as Ukrainian and separatist combatants, had been killed in fighting in Ukraine.
SANCTIONS AGAINST RUSSIA
The European Union will press ahead with implementing new sanctions on Russia later on Monday despite a shaky ceasefire in Ukraine, the European Commission said.
"The package is due to be formally implemented by the member states through a written procedure later today," Commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen told reporters.
Details will be published in the EU's Official Journal on Tuesday at the latest, she said.
Earlier, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow would respond to any new sanctions "asymmetrically," possibly targeting flights over Russia, if its Western partners press on with "the temptation to use force in international relations."
In an interview with Russian daily Vedomosti published on Monday, Medvedev said: "If there are sanctions related to the energy sector, or further restrictions on Russia's financial sector, we will have to respond asymmetrically."
The European Union has agreed on new economic sanctions on Russia which should come into force on Monday, but said they could be suspended to allow Moscow to show it was resolving the conflict that has killed nearly 3,000 and caused the worst confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War.
Medvedev said the crisis was continuing and that all sides should seize the proposals for a peace plan put forward by Putin, which would leave pro-Russian rebels in control of large areas of territory in eastern Ukraine.
"Unfortunately, the Ukraine crisis continues unabated, which is a terrible tragedy," Medvedev said, adding "hopefully it will be resolved, provided the Ukrainian leaders show good will and seize the proposals put forward by Russia."
REACTIONS
A ceasefire agreed between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists is not sufficient as other issues including border control and the exchange of prisoners still need to be addressed, a German government spokesman said on Monday.
"It's not just about this one issue of a ceasefire. There's a long list of things that were agreed to and which need to be implemented, not just the ceasefire," Steffen Seibert said.
"As much as we all want a ceasefire to be respected by all sides, there are other issues like OSCE monitoring, the exchange of prisoners and hostages, monitoring of borders and the start of a dialogue - there's a lot more than just sticking to the ceasefire."
For his part, Swiss President Didier Burkhalter said he was not optimistic about the Ukraine ceasefire, saying it was not enough just to have a cessation of hostilities but both sides must push for political solution.
Burkhalter, who holds the rotating chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), was asked whether he was optimistic about the ceasefire clinched between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists.
"I'm not optimistic at all. I've not been optimistic at all since the beginning," he told the Swiss foreign correspondents association in Geneva. "It can work if one wants. The different actors must really push for a breakthrough."
"A ceasefire alone is not enough," Burkhalter said, adding that it should be given a chance.
REUTERS