The city council in Donetsk said three people have been killed and five wounded in shelling overnight in the city in eastern Ukraine, putting pressure on a shaky cease-fire, according to Reuters.
In a statement published online Tuesday, the council said multiple residential buildings had been hit by shelling primarily in the north of the city, despite a shaky cease-fire between pro-Russian separatists and government forces, Reuters reported.
The renewed fighting in the east's main industrial hub, following a weekend in which at least six people were killed and a team of international monitors was shelled, put fresh strain on a 10-day-old ceasefire between government forces and Russian-backed separatists, according to Reuters.
The truce started on Sept. 5 and had been broadly holding up before this weekend, despite sporadic violations, Reuters reported.
The focal point of the recent fighting has been the airport in the north of the city, which is controlled by government troops. In downtown Donetsk, explosions could be heard throughout the night, according to Reuters.
The casualties come as Ukraine's parliament plans to review a bill that would give greater autonomy to the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where fighting between separatists and Kiev's forces has claimed at least 3,000 civilian lives, Reuters reported.
On Saturday there was particularly heavy fighting around Donetsk airport, which remains under government control, and shells hit a marketplace in the city, killing at least one woman, according to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Reuters reported.
The rebels' main leader in Donetsk accused Ukrainian forces on Monday of violating the truce repeatedly and suggested it could not hold much longer, Reuters reported.
"I do not see the sense in consultations. There have to be measures which must first be undertaken and then consultations can take place," said Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the Donetsk People's Republic, which declared its independence from Ukraine in May, Reuters reported.
