Fighting between government troops and separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine has escalated, killing at least seven people, injuring many more and trapping 200 coalminers underground, the warring sides reported.
Artillery shelling, which appears to be the worst in many months, is concentrated around the government-controlled town of Avdiivka, home to a giant coking plant.
The press office of the Ukrainian government said on Tuesday that heavy shelling around Avdiivka on the northern outskirts of the separatist stronghold of Donetsk has killed at least three troops and injured 20 more.
In Donetsk, the rebels' Donetsk News Agency reported four rebel fighters have been killed and seven injured overnight.
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Salvos of heavy-calibre artillery were heard throughout the night and late morning in the government-controlled town of Avdiivka, where several thousand people have been living without electricity for days. Fighting has cut water supplies for most of the town and it was left without heating in the dead of winter. Temperatures plunged to -18C on Tuesday morning.
The local hospital was flooded with injured soldiers during the night who were operated on and shipped to a town further away from the frontline, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. Several private houses were damaged in the shelling.
Both sides in the conflict committed to ceasefire and pull back heavy weaponry under a 2015 truce which they have violated several times.
Pavlo Zhebrivsky, head of the administration in charge of the government-controlled parts of the Donetsk region, said on Facebook his office was working on a plan to evacuate Avdiivka residents.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday cut short his visit to Germany because of the fighting.
A few miles to the south, rebels in Donetsk said an electricity sub-station was damaged in shelling, cutting power to the Zasyadko coal mine in Donetsk, trapping more than 200 miners inside.
"We came for our first shift and we were not allowed into the mine ... there was shelling and an (electrical) sub-station was destroyed. We do not know anything else," Sergei who works at the same mine told Reuters.
Sounds of heavy shelling were heard near the mine, although local authorities said there was no danger for the miners still remaining underground.
Zasyadko mine is one of the largest in the region with 15,000 employees, according to the official website.
The mine is notorious for its safety standards; 33 people were killed there in 2015 by a methane blast.
