Ukranian soldiers outside Debaltseve received a mass text message telling them that they would not be killed if they surrendered to rebel troops who have surrounded the city, the Guardian reports.

A cease-fire brokered by Angela Merkel and François Hollande went into effect in Ukraine last night, the New York Times reports. Aleksandr Zakharchenko, leader of the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic, has announced that it would not apply to Debaltseve, one of the war in Ukraine's key battlefields.