Ukraine Fighting Continues as Talks Stall

                      Envoys representing Ukraine, Russia and a European monitoring group opened a new round of cease-fire talks on Saturday aimed at ending a two-week-old flare-up in violence in the Ukraine war.

The talks have been halting. Plans to start on Friday fell through when no senior officials showed up in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where the negotiations are being held.
It was unclear how much could be done to tamp down violence and head off new sanctions; although a Russian envoy arrived for the talks, Russian-backed separatist leaders did not.

Russia insists that it does not formally represent the separatists in eastern Ukraine, although Western governments have imposed economic sanctions on Russia for backing them.

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Denis Pushilin, a negotiator for separatists in one rebellious region, Donetsk, said the leaders of the self-proclaimed republics there and in Luhansk, another rebel-controlled region, would not engage in cease-fire talks unless Ukraine declared a truce first.

The breakaway leaders, he told Interfax, will otherwise need to remain focused on fighting the war and protecting civilians.

“Firing by Ukrainian government troops has to stop, because our leaders are fully involved in repelling attacks,” Mr. Pushilin said.

The top Ukrainian, Russian and European envoys — former President Leonid D. Kuchma of Ukraine; Russia’s ambassador to Ukraine, Mikhail Y. Zurabov; and a representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Heidi Tagliavini — met Saturday.

In a statement issued late Saturday, Mr. Kuchma demanded that the pro-Russian side comply with the previously agreed upon truce and stop trying to impose new demands. “The Ukrainian side does not accept any ultimatums or preliminary conditions,” Mr. Kuchma said .

In Ukraine, the fighting has grown worse by the day.

Artillery shells exploded in Debaltseve, the Ukrainian-held town south of here that is surrounded on three sides by separatist forces and resupplied by only a single, tenuous 31-mile-long road. Shelling in Debaltseve killed 12 civilians on Saturday, the police said. The day before, shells killed 14 people in Donetsk.