Fighting raged in eastern Ukraine on Thursday despite European efforts to resurrect a stillborn cease-fire, a day after pro-Russian separatists spurned the truce by forcing thousands of government troops out of a strategic town.

Western nations are refusing to give up on a peace deal brokered by France and Germany last week even though the rebels disavowed it to seize the important railway hub of Debaltseve.

Shelling continued near that town on Thursday, and local officials in government-held territory said rebels had also fired mortar bombs at another town farther south. Kiev fears they are massing for an assault near the major port of Mariupol.