crisis in Ukraine

President Viktor Poroshenko, speaking on the one-year anniversary of a bloody day of protests leading up to his predecessor's ouster, accuses the Kremlin of organizing snipers who killed dozens.

Battles rage nearly a week after a cease-fire deal. Meanwhile, a British parliamentary committee accuses the EU of a "catastrophic misreading" of Russia's designs on Ukraine.

The fighting continued around the Luhansk region and in the heavily disputed city of Debaltseve.

A cease-fire deal forged earlier this week in Minsk has gone into effect with fighting right up to the midnight deadline. But skepticism abounds over the second truce in six months.

A revival of peace talks in the capital of Belarus is aimed at resuscitating a widely violated truce agreed there in September.

The German chancellor and her French counterpart, Francois Hollande, want to keep Washington from arming the rebels as part of a peace deal they are trying to forge.

Russian-backed rebels are shelling a strategic rail hub in the Donetsk region a day after cease-fire discussions fell apart.

Petro Poroshenko says that the only way forward in ending the conflict with Russian-backed separatists in the country's east is to revive a cease-fire agreement forged in September in Minsk.

The attack follows a rebel rocket barrage that hit an open-air market in the port city, killing at least 15 civilians.

The rebels are reported to have seized control of the Donetsk Airport days after the Kiev government had declared it had taken the destroyed facility.