The Ukrainian army has been fighting pro-Russian militants for more than a year in the country’s east in a conflict in which more than 6,500 people have been killed.
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More than 6,400 people have been killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine that began in April 2014 when rebels seized large parts of the two eastern regions.
A February agreement called for a cease-fire and for both sides to pull back heavy weaponry.
But Ukrainian military observers said they witnessed rebel missile systems “turned towards Donetsk, shelling residential areas of Donetsk, then turning and starting to fire in the direction of Ukrainian positions”.
Kiev authorities, however, say they doubt that the rebels are actually pulling weapons back.
Rebels in the Luhansk region are ready for a similar move, it said.
Separatist military commander Eduard Basurin announced late Saturday that the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had given orders that the proscribed heavy arms be withdrawn from the front line areas “as soon as possible”, in compliance with the Minsk deal.
He was speaking after Ukrainian military official Serhiy Halushko said the army had intercepted and posted online rebel radio traffic that suggested the separatists had planned to shell Donetsk.
“Last time the center of Donetsk was hit was in February…I have no explanation”.
Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from the frontline in Pysky town, said on Sunday he saw Ukrainian army tanks in a zone that was supposed to be clear of all heavy weapons, but the soldiers justified their presence by saying that the separatists were also violating the truce deal. On Sundya, rebels said that at least one person was killed and several injured as Ukrainian forces shelled a hospital and several residential blocks in central Donetsk.
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But neither side has fully complied with the agreement, according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
