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I believe the Russian Speaking rebels have orders NOT to respond to Ukrainian fire, for it appears the Ukraine wants to provoke the rebels and thus claim any attack was do to the rebels return fire (i.e. Ukraine claims it did NOT fire, but only attack rebel position after the rebels fired on them).
If the Rebels have decent discipline, the rebels will follow those orders, on the grounds that they do NOT want to give an excuse to the Ukrainians. If the Rebels have lousy control and discipline, they will return fire and give the Ukrainians the excuse the Ukrainians are looking for.
Please note, the Ukrainian forces appear to be poorly discipline and the central government of the Ukraine has poor control over theses forces. Thus many of these Ukrainian fighters may be trying to provoke an attack by the rebels, an attack the central government of the Ukraine does not want (Nor could defeat).
Putin is in a bind. Putin does NOT want to invade the Ukraine. Russian army forces could be in Kiev within two weeks and then Putin could impose a settlement on the Ukraine government and withdraw. In many ways, it may be Putin's best choice, for it will lead to increase sanctions and increase opposition from the US and the rest of Europe, but the Eastern Ukraine would stop festering as it has been the last few years.
On the other hand, Putin does NOT want Russian forces in the Western Ukraine, that is where the main opposition to Russia in the Ukraine exists and where any guerrilla war against occupying Russian forces will occur. If Putin take Kiev, but the present Government refuses to cut a deal, Putin would be stuck inside the Ukraine fighting a guerrilla war he does NOT want to fight. This is Putin's biggest fear and why he has refused to invade the Ukraine.
On the other hand Putin can NOT leave his fellow Russian Speakers of the Eastern Ukraine without support, thus Putin support, both verbally and in the forms of food, medicine and arms, for the Rebels. Thus this problem festers.
The best solution is Putin's proposal of a Federation of about five states within the Ukraine, Kharkov (Kharkiv), Odessa (Odesa), Donbass, the Eastern Ukraine, and small "Federal State" around Kiev.
Odessa has a Majority Ukrainian population, but also a majority whose first language is Russian. Kharkov has a similar pattern. This is the result of a lot of Ukrainians adopting the Russian language when they moved to both areas in Soviet Times. Thus in most of Rural Ukraine, Ukrainian is spoken, but in the larger cities in those areas, it is Russian. The big exception to this is the Rural Coal Mining Area of the Donbass. The Donbass has rural coal mine with Russian speaking coal miners. Coal miners speaking ONE language is a HUGE safety concern for miners. Thus even through the mines have been in the Ukraine since 1991, the miners know most miners speak Russian, so even non Russians speak Russian in the mines (Same rule in most similar situation in the US, even in areas with huge Spanish speaking populations, in dangerous industry, even the Spanish speakers Speak English Only and as people start to see speaking one language is a safety factor, you see them even doing it at home. My Grandfather stopped speaking Polish at home in the 1930s for this same reason. In the US in the days before Unions, it was common for miners from different nationalities be put in the same coal mine, so they could not speak to each other. This was to defeat unionization efforts, but the miners quickly found out speaking one language was a HUGE safety issue, thus they all started to learn English AND spoke it at home so that they would NOT revert to their native tongue in times of crisis in the mines).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donbass
Back to the Mortar and Artillery fire. Accusation of violation of the cease fire, but when investigated by neutral observers it is almost always from Ukrainian side of the cease fire line (and thus NOT reported in the western press). The reports are frequent, as are the position of the rebels NOT to return fire. It is August, so the best campaigning time is coming to a close in the Ukraine thus I see no real breaks of the cease fire till the ground freezes in December (Deep Winter is the best time to launch a campaign in Russia, the rivers and lakes freeze over so it is one flat pancake, not a grassland divided by rivers one can not ford, but must cross by boat).
