despite tensions between, angela merkel and victor pershing co the leaders driving the cease-fire talks says that key ever continue to do this as tensions simmer on the ground. >> yuri is in kiev for us. how desperate is the situation there? rebels still have the government troops surrounded and i guess the residents cannot get out either? >> most left weeks before. it has been hard-fought by the rebels and the ukrainian government forces days and weeks before. up to 8000 ukrainians have and are obviously surrounded by pro-russian rebels. the rebels offered to leave the city without any weapons, which is too late. they want the ukrainians to leave the city without technical or military devices. that cannot be accepted by the ukrainian forces, of course if they are going to defend the city. >> what about the pulling out of heavy weapons in general? any sign of that briefly starting to happen at least? >> unfortunately not. according to the peace agreement , heavy weapons must be removed into the so-called buffer area which is about 50 kilometers away from the current frontline but instea