(VOVworld) - Pro-Russian rebels and the Ukrainian military accused each other on Saturday of breaking the Kremlin-backed truce only hours after it came into force across east Ukraine.

A Ukrainian army tank guards a road east of Mariupol as residents leave the area by car (Photo: Fergal Keane/BBC)

The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said Saturday that despite agreements reached in the meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine, Kiev’s troops continued to fire artillery to Donetsk and several locations near Mariupol. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, also accused the militia of breaking the truce saying that the military had recorded a "series of provocations by the rebels".