A cease-fire deal forged earlier this week in Minsk has gone into effect with fighting right up to the midnight deadline. But skepticism abounds over the second truce in six months.
Despite Thursday's breakthrough, "The enemy shelled positions of the 'anti-terrorist operation' forces with the same intensity as before," a Ukrainian military official said Friday.
Russia's seizure of Crimea has been widely criticized. But what if Crimea was given away illegally to Ukraine back in 1954? Russian lawmakers are hard at work on their own version of history.
A new cease-fire is set to begin on Sunday in eastern Ukraine, in a deal after 16 hours of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. The deal calls for the removal of heavy weapons.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is in Cairo for talks with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, one day before a critical meeting in Minsk over the future of Ukraine.
The president said the option was one of many he was considering if diplomacy fails. Germany's chancellor, who held a joint news conference with the president, backs diplomacy to end the crisis.
The German chancellor and her French counterpart, Francois Hollande, want to keep Washington from arming the rebels as part of a peace deal they are trying to forge.
Buses were allowed to carry people out of harm's way during a stay of hostilities, which have displaced some 1.6 million. Talks between Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France are to continue Sunday.