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A bomb killed two people during a pro-government march in the east of Ukraine, as Kiev's army and rebels wrangled over a shaky truce requiring them to pull back heavy weapons.
Tensions also rose around a new flashpoint - the port city of Mariupol on the Azov Sea - with Kiev accusing Russia of trying to wrest it away through the deployment of several tanks.
The blast in the eastern city of Kharkiv tore through a "Dignity March" marking the one-year anniversary of the overthrow of the country's former pro-Kremlin president, one of several that took place across Ukraine.
Regional prosecutor Yuri Danilchenko described it as a "homemade bomb packed with shrapnel, put in a plastic bag and hidden in snow by the side of the road". One of those killed was a police officer. Another 11 people were wounded.
An AFP journalist saw the two bodies lying on the ground covered with Ukrainian flags.
"I thought it was a stun grenade, but then I saw people fall down," an organiser of the march, Igor Rasokha, said.
Kharkiv is located more than 200 kilometres from Ukraine's front line, which continues to be contested in several areas despite a UN-backed truce meant to come into effect a week ago.
Ukraine's military and the rebels sought to salvage parts of the truce yesterday, agreeing to pull back heavy weapons from the front line and swapping prisoners overnight. But even those steps were fraught.
Within hours, the insurgents said the weapons withdrawal would only begin tomorrow, after a couple of days of "preparation". Kiev insisted that it was meant to start yesterday with no delays.
And both sides said fighting continued near the port city of Mariupol, held by the army but becoming a new focus for fighting in the 10-month conflict that has killed more than 5,700 people.
Kiev said Russia had sent 20 tanks to near Mariupol.
The worst breach of the ceasefire was a bloody offensive by the pro-Russian rebels on Debaltseve, a strategic transport hub between the separatist strongholds of Donetsk and Lugansk.
The rebels overran the town last Tuesday, sending 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers fleeing and taking more than 110 prisoner.
Some of those detained were among 139 Ukrainian soldiers who were swapped for 52 rebel fighters in the frontline town of Zholobok at the weekend.
One freed insurgent, Roman Biarinov, vowed he would quickly return to the fight. "We have to defend this land. We are going to win. I don't know how, but we will win," he said.
Further breaches of the already tattered ceasefire could bring "serious" additional sanctions on Russia "within days", the US has warned.
 

Ukraine's former president Yanukovych vows he 'will be back'
Ukraine's former pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych, whose ouster early last year led to the insurgency raging in east Ukraine, has said in a Russian interview excerpt: "I'll be back."
Russia's Channel One published the excerpt as both Ukraine and Russia marked - very differently - the one-year anniversary of the pro-Western uprising in Kiev that sent Yanukovych fleeing to exile in Russia.
"I'll be back and will do everything in my power to make life easier in Ukraine," Yanukovych promised in the interview, which will be broadcast in full today.
He claimed that "my heart ached" at seeing the conflict Ukraine has slipped into, with "entire regions destroyed".
Protesters who chased out Yanukovych had discovered the lavish life he had been living - including a sumptuous palace with a private zoo, a replica pirate ship and pure gold fittings - while the country was mired in debt.


Blast kills two as Kiev and rebels try to salvage truce and pull weapons from front line

Prisoners from the "People's Republic of Donetsk" are exchanged during a swap of separatist gunmen and Ukrainian troops. Photo: AFP

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Bomb kills two as Kiev's army and rebels agree to pull back heavy weapons from the front line


A bomb killed two people during a pro-government march in the east of Ukraine, as Kiev's army and rebels wrangled over a shaky truce requiring them to pull back heavy weapons.
