By Natalia Zinets and Aleksandar Vasovic

KIEV/DONETSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Fighting raged in eastern Ukraine on Sunday as pro-Russian separatists used artillery fire to try to dislodge government forces from a strategic rail hub after peace talks collapsed.

Hopes of easing the situation evaporated on Saturday with Ukraine's representative and separatist envoys accusing each other of sabotaging negotiations.

"Fighting continues across all sections of the frontline," Kiev military spokesman Volodymyr Polyovy said in a briefing, noting that some 13 soldiers had been killed in the past 24 hours. Other Ukrainian authorities said at least 13 civilians had also been killed in attacks.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which took part in the talks in Minsk, Belarus, along with envoys from Ukraine and Russia, said rebel delegates had not been ready to discuss crucial points of a peace plan.

"In fact, they were not even prepared to discuss implementation of a ceasefire and withdrawal of heavy weapons," the OSCE said in a statement.

It said rebels had instead pushed for a revision of a ceasefire plan agreed in Minsk last September.

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A woman with a child walks past crosses with the names of victims who were killed in the shelling of …

The terms of that 12-point protocol have been repeatedly violated but Kiev and foreign governments see it as the only viable roadmap to end the nine-month-long conflict in which more than 5,000 people have been killed.

The rebels rejected the OSCE's assessment, saying they were ready for dialogue, but unwilling to accept an "ultimatum" from Kiev so long as government forces continued shelling civilian areas, separatist news service DAN quoted rebel envoy Denis Pushilin as saying.

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko held a three-way phone conversation with German and French leaders Angela Merkel Francois Hollande in which they expressed their disappointment, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said.

"The separatists are urged not to block the talks. Russia must, in this regard, also influence the rebels," he said.

HEAVY FIGHTING

In eastern Ukraine, the Kiev military reported no let-up in separatist attacks on government positions.

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A woman looks out of the window of a residential block damaged by a shelling in Donetsk, eastern Ukr …

Clashes are intense around the town of Debaltseve, Kiev spokesman Polyovy said, referring to a Kiev-held transport hub connecting the two main rebel strongholds that separatists aim to cut off, though the situation remained "under control".

The rebel advance has succeeded in seizing part of nearby Vuhlehirsk, he said. On Sunday the town was being pounded by near-constant shelling, a Reuters witness reported.

The Interior Ministry said seven civilians had been killed on Sunday in the shelling of Debaltseve, while the Luhansk regional administration said three civilians had been killed in shelling across the region overnight.

Residents are being encouraged to abandon the areas of fiercest fighting, where many have been living in makeshift bomb shelters, waiting for breaks in the bombardment to make quick trips for food and water.

In Kiev-controlled Slaviansk, refugees arrived in buses from Debaltseve and other frontline towns.

Pensioner Vyacheslav Gurov said half of his town of Avdiivka had been completely destroyed.

"We don't even know who's shooting. Both the rebels and the national guard are at it ... there's no water, no electricity, no heating, nothing," he said.

In the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, which shook with artillery fire throughout Sunday, the regional administration reported the deaths of at least three civilians, describing the situation as "extremely tense".

A Reuters witness saw the body of a young man stretched out on a street in the city centre, killed when a shell struck a wall nearby. Nadezhda Petrovna, 68, a neighbour, said the man was trying to run away from the attack when a shell landed in front of him.

"It is like this every day, people are getting killed, we are sleeping fully dressed so we can run into the cellar, this is becoming unbearable," she said.

Following the collapse of Saturday's talks, there was no word on when renewed negotiations might take place.

(Additional reporting by Lina Kushch, Alexander Winning in Moscow, Paul Carrel in Berlin; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Victory dance: Kurds celebrate driving ISIS out of Kobane...

After Islamic State militants admitted defeat in the four-month battle for Kobani, young Kurds appeared to celebrate the victory with a synchronized dance.

In a video posted to Facebook and published online by the Daily Mail, young men and women dressed in green military uniforms are seen in a line dancing to music. It's unclear exactly when the celebration took place.

Early last week, Kurdish fighters raised their flag on a hill that once flew the Islamic State group's black banner, claiming Kobani was virtually IS-free.

In a video released by the pro-IS Aamaq News Agency late Friday, two masked fighters said airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition were the main reason why IS fighters — who once occupied more than half of the Syrian border town — were forced to withdraw.

"A while ago we retreated a bit from [Kobani] because of the bombardment and the killing of some brothers," said one masked fighter, according to the Associated Press. "The warplanes were bombarding us night and day. They bombarded everything, even motorcycles."

The IS fighters nonetheless vowed to defeat the main Kurdish militia in Syria, the People's Protection Units known as the YPG.

IS and the YPG had been fighting for control of the Kobani region since mid-September, with the extremist militant group capturing more than 300 Kurdish villages and forcing more than 200,000 Kurds from their homes. But the airstrikes took their toll. More than 1,000 IS fighters were killed, the AP said.

The Obama administration has vowed to fight IS in Syria without putting troops on the ground — something Republican critics say is a mistake.

“We have to go beyond just aggressive airstrikes," Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "We have to look at other surgical methods. And ultimately, we have to be prepared to put boots on the ground if that’s what it takes."

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NATO is expected to station additional soldiers in six member states in Eastern Europe as part of its new anti-Russian strategy. The units would be small, but involved in possible deployment of the alliance’s future ‘rapid response’ force.

The additional NATO troops would be posted to the three Baltic states, Romania, Bulgaria and Poland, NATO's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday.

Each unit would consist of 40 to 50 troops comprised in roughly equal parts of soldiers from the host nation and those from other NATO members Reuters reported, citing an alliance diplomat.

The units would be involved in organizing NATO exercises in corresponding countries. They will also perform command and control functions for the future European NATO force, which is to be created over the year. The force, according to the alliance, would respond to a crisis situation within two days, with the assumption that it would counter an attack from Russia.

"It is completely within all our international obligations and what we are doing is defensive and it is proportionate," Stoltenberg said, explaining why Moscow shouldn’t see the deployment as provocative.

The force is expected to be officially presented after defense ministers form the 28-member military bloc been on Thursday next week. The ministers would decide on which countries would provide the several thousand troops for the force.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. (Reuters/Francois Lenoir)

The alliance has significantly boosted its presence in Eastern Europe last year, citing a growing threat from Russia in the wake of the Ukrainian crisis and the reunification of the formerly Ukrainian region of Crimea with Russia. NATO sees it as an annexation through military force and says Moscow may have similar plans for some members of the alliance.

Russia believes that NATO is using the Ukrainian turmoil, which started with a West-endorsed armed coup in Kiev and escalated into a civil war in Eastern Ukraine, as justification for its existence and a pretext for getting extra funding from European members. The failure of many allies to meet NATO’s military spending benchmark has been for years an issue of constant bickering between Washington, which foots the biggest part of NATO budget with its European allies.

"It is not possible to get more out of less indefinitely. That is the reason why we have to stop the cuts and gradually start to increase defense spending as our economies grow," Stoltenberg said.

"Despite the economic crisis, despite the financial problems they are facing, Russia now is still giving priority to defense spending."

Deployment of the new troops would require extra funding from the host nations. The Baltic republic Estonia alone plans to spend 40 million euro ($45 million) to accommodate NATO’s troops, newspaper Postimees reported on Saturday.

French President Francois Hollande (R) and Poland's Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz. (Reuters/Philippe Wojazer)

The money would pay for new barracks and depots at a military base in the town Tapa, several supply facilities throughout the country and a new HQ for the NATO force in the capital Tallinn.

Meanwhile France pledged to send its tanks and armored vehicles to Poland, which was pursuing for a strong permanent NATO presence in the country. The agreement to do so was announced on Friday in a joint statement after a meeting between French President Francois Hollande and Polish Prime Minister Eva Kopacz.

The deployment is however a far cry from what Poland asked form the alliance back in April 2014, when then-Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski asked for two brigades of armored infantry with about 5,000 troops each to be stationed in his country.

Some alliance members like Germany voiced skepticism over permanent deployment of troops in Eastern Europe, expecting an angry reaction from Moscow to such a step. Under NATO’s agreementswith Russia the alliance pledged not to have “additional permanent stationing of substantial combat forces” in the region.

NATO has maintained a stronger presence near Russia’s border by conducting about 200 military exercises over 2014. Moscow sees this as aggressive posturing and boosted the number of exercises conducted in its territory in response.

Cairo (AFP) - An Egyptian policeman was arrested Sunday for having shot dead an Islamist detained in a Cairo hospital with injuries from his arrest, the interior ministry said.

The ministry, on its Facebook page, said the victim was a member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood arrested as he tried to plant a bomb in the capital's Al-Warraq district, without giving a date.

The suspect had insulted and provoked his police guard in hospital, threatening to kill him. The enraged policeman had shot him dead, it said.

The ministry said the policeman was arrested and an investigation opened.

Egyptian authorities have regularly accused the Brotherhood of launching deadly attacks since the army ousted president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, a charge denied by the Islamist movement.

Tensions soared after deadly clashes between protesters and security forces in Cairo and the northern city of Alexandria on January 25 as Egypt marked the fourth anniversary of the 2011 uprising that toppled ex-strongman Hosni Mubarak.

Police arrested 516 Brotherhood supporters that day.

On Thursday, jihadists targeted security forces with rockets and a car bomb in North Sinai province, in simultaneous attacks that cost at least 30 lives.