Heavy artillery and shelling have rocked Ukraine's east as the army and pro-Russian rebels waged a fierce battle for a key airport, forcing monitors to flee and threatening all-out conflict.
The upsurge in fighting that has rocked eastern Ukraine follows the postponement of a planned peace summit between President Petro Poroshenko and the leaders of Russia, Germany and France.
Heavy fighting shook the area around the airport in the rebel bastion of Donetsk, while pro-Kremlin insurgents had earlier been accused of unleashing a massive rocket assault.
The rebels claimed to have been on the verge of taking control of the airport, but there was no independent confirmation.
Ukraine's military said in a statement on Thursday night that it was still defending the airport under heavy attack by the rebels.
An AFP journalist in Vodiane, west of the airport and where Ukrainian forces transport their dead and wounded, saw one soldier dead and five wounded.
Ukraine confirmed two soldiers had been killed.
Meanwhile a monitoring mission from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe attempting to reach the airport was twice forced to turn back because of heavy firing from both sides.
Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug told reporters in Donetsk that the situation was "very volatile and tense".
"The OSCE mission is aware of ongoing fights and attacks with heavy weaponry from both sides all around the airport area," he said.
"These attacks are being conducted and led from either within residential areas or at the outskirts of residential areas and of course also attract counter-fire... which leads unfortunately to repeated civilian casualty and damage to infrastructure."
The wave of violence follows weeks of relative calm and served as a reminder of the war's worst clashes last summer.
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