Russian-backed rebels massing to attack key Ukrainian towns - Kiev
DONETSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Pro-Russian separatists have intensified shelling of government forces on all front lines and appear to be amassing forces for new offensives on the key railway town of Debaltseve and the coastal city of Mariupol, Ukraine's military said on Saturday. Five Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 26 wounded in fighting in the past 24 hours, spokesman Volodymyr Polyovy told a briefing in Kiev. The centre of the main regional city of Donetsk echoed on Saturday with the sound of artillery blasts coming from the north and east. "The situation inside the city is tense and we can hear powerful artillery fire … but we have no immediate information about casualties and damages," an official of the rebel-controlled city administration said by phone. Separatist gains against Kiev government forces in eastern Ukraine, particularly a rebel advance on Debaltseve to the northeast of Donetsk, have given impetus to a Franco-German initiative to try to end the U