At least nine people have been killed and 16 wounded during battles in eastern Ukraine over the last 24 hours, the bloodiest single day in the restive areas since a "regime of silence" was enforced, official reports stated Thursday.
The press service of the Ukrainian military forces said that independence-seeking insurgents violated ceasefire 40 times, Xinhua reported.
"Overnight, uncontrolled armed groups attacked our positions and Ukrainian-controlled residential areas with mortar and artillery fire, along with fire from the Grad rocket-launchers," the press service said in a statement.
Seven government troops were killed and 11 wounded in confrontation with the rebels, said Andrei Lysenko, spokesman for the National Security and Defense Council.
Meanwhile, Donetsk municipal council said that artillery shelling in fighting between government forces and insurgents in the city killed one civilian and wounded three others in the past one day.
Another civilian was killed in shelling from Grad rocket-launchers in Novotoshkovka village in the neighbouring Lugansk region, Gennady Moskal, head of the Lugansk regional administration said.
Separately, two men suffered shrapnel wounds after mortar bombardment hit the administrative building of Gorlovka water reservoir, which supplies water to several towns in Donetsk region.
The insurgents have not commented on their casualties.
The intensified fighting has put fresh strain on a truce agreed between government forces and rebels last week, which had been broadly holding despite isolated violations.
On Oct 21, the conflicting parties agreed to enforce a "regime of silence" in the war-torn areas to pave the way to an end to the six-month-old conflict that killed over 3,700 people.
