ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine — The United States released satellite images on Saturday meant to bolster its case that Russia has joined separatists in an all-out assault on the Ukrainian Army during the window before a midnight cease-fire is to take effect.
When the pact was announced Thursday, some last-minute jockeying for position was expected before the cease-fire went into effect. Instead, a bloody free-for-all, alarming in its scope and intensity, ensued on the snowy steppe south of here, near the contested town of Debaltseve.
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Artillery shelling and gunfire continued to reverberate in the area around Debaltseve on Saturday. The town is a strategic rail hub where rebels were said to have severed the last land route into town, leaving government forces surrounded. At least 18 people were reported to have died there since the cease-fire.
Michael R. Gordon contributed reporting from Washington.
