SOLEDAR: Ukraine on Tuesday appealed to the West to get "tough" on Russia after pro-Moscow separatists stormed a flashpoint town to attack thousands of government troops, violating a three-day-old ceasefire.
The UN and Western powers called for an immediate end to hostilities in eastern Ukraine as fierce fighting around the town of Debaltseve threatened the latest attempt to end the bloody 10-month conflict.
The US condemned the violence, which it blamed on "separatist forces acting in concert with Russian forces," and warned Moscow it would face penalties for supporting the rebel fighters encircling the strategic transport hub.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin -- who denies backing Ukraine's insurgency -- said the conflict, which has killed more than 5,600 people, could not be solved by "military means" and urged Kiev's troops to surrender.
"I hope that the Ukrainian authorities are not going to prevent the Ukrainian soldiers from laying down their weapons," Putin said in a press conference during a visit to Budapest.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, in a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said the assault on Debaltseve was a "cynical attack" on the truce brokered last week by Germany and France.
He called for the European Union and international community to take a "tough reaction against the treacherous actions of the rebels and Russia".
Kiev and pro-Russian rebels agreed a peace roadmap on February 12 after marathon negotiations in Minsk involving the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine.
But the insurgents have argued that Debaltseve, which sits on a railway line linking rebel-held Donetsk and Luhansk, is well inside their territory behind the frontline so should not be included in the ceasefire agreement while Kiev says it controls the territory.
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