DONETSK: A Reuters witness heard prolonged shelling in an area north of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine’s largest city, and saw plumes of black smoke filling the sky today morning, in a further test for a ceasefire that is barely 40 hours old.
The shelling came from near the airport, which has been in the hands of Ukrainian government forces though pro-Russian rebels control the city.
Rebels told Reuters the airport itself was now empty and that the fighting was centred on a nearby military compound.
“Listen to the sound of the ceasefire,” joked one armed rebel.
“There’s a proper battle going on there.”
Overnight the port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, to the south of Donetsk, also saw a serious violation of the ceasefire when government forces came under artillery fire.
There was no word on casualties.
-- Reuters