Jan 30 (Reuters) - France and Poland urged Russia on Friday to stop all forms of support to separatists in Ukraine and called for an immediate ceasefire, warning that sanctions on Moscow would be maintained and could be extended as long as no political solution was found.

"We are very worried by what is happening in Eastern Ukraine," Hollande said after talks with Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz saying it was a urgent to reach a political solution because sanctions against Russia were taking a toll on the whole region. (Reporting by Julien Ponthus; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Nick Vinocur)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/30/ukraine-france-poland-idUSP6N0TG01520150130?rpc=401

Heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine has killed civilians on both side, while an attempt to reopen peace talks in neighbouring Belarus was aborted before it began.

As the main rebel stronghold Donetsk reverberated with heavy artillery fire on Friday, two rebel delegates flew to the Belarus capital Minsk to announce that planned talks were off before flying back to Moscow.

The talks would have been the first since a five-month-old ceasefire collapsed with a rebel advance last week.

In Donetsk, salvoes from multiple rocket launchers and heavier thuds from artillery came from the direction of the airport, a constant battlefield.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/30/ukraine-donetsk-pro-russia-separatists-debaltseve

Ukraine, was under heavy tank and artillery fire Friday from Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists.

The area, in Donetsk province, is the site of numerous confrontations between the two sides. Civilians are trapped in Debaltseve, and some wounded civilians have escaped to the nearby town of Artemivsk. Separatists claim a bus and cultural center in Donetsk were struck by artillery, and Russian media say seven civilians in Donetsk were killed.

"We are holding Debaltseve!!! There is fighting for Vuhlehirsk; half of the town is ours and fighting for the other half is fierce," Illia Kiva, deputy chief of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry in the Donetsk region wrote on Facebook Friday.

Dmytro Tymchuk, of the separatist People's Front party, said on social media that both sides are exchanging massive artillery fire in Debaltseve, a town of 26,000, adding that the Ukrainian army has moved trucks and howitzers into the contested area.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2015/01/30/Battle-rages-in-key-Ukraine-town/4501422634952/?spt=sec&or=tn