CRI听力:Fighting Intensifies in Ukraine ahead of Ceasefire

Hostilities between government troops and pro-independence rebels in eastern Ukraine have intensified with 26 people killed and scores of others wounded.

The surge in fighting came as the warring sides accused each other of pushing an offensive to make territorial gains ahead of an agreed ceasefire scheduled to take effect on Sunday.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Petro Mekhed said the rebel forces are aiming to capture the government-controlled Mariupol and Debaltsevo towns before the ceasefire deal comes into the force.

Insurgents blamed Ukrainian troops for shelling their positions in Lugansk, Donetsk and Gorlovka cities, the main rebel bastions.

The intensified fighting, some of the heaviest and deadliest in two weeks, occurred just hours after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin reached a peace agreement Thursday in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

Poroshenko said he personally did not think the ceasefire or the peace deal was definitely going to succeed.

"I want nobody to have any illusions and I don't want to look like a naive person. We still have a long way to go before we reach peace. And there is no firm conviction that the agreement signed in Minsk will be fully implemented."

The deal which also involved Germany and France calls for withdrawal of heavy weapons from the frontline.