Heavy casualties reported in E. Ukraine violence

Violence has escalated in eastern Ukraine over the past day with nine people reportedly killed and 19 others wounded, reports showed Wednesday.

According to the press service of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office in Donetsk region, three civilians, including an 11-year-old girl, were confirmed dead and at least four others got wounded after a shell hit a private house in the frontline Gorlovka town.

The incident happened when the outskirts of the town, controlled by the pro-independence insurgents, came under intense shelling from the insurgent positions, the press service said in a statement.

Later in the day, the insurgent leadership said that five people were killed and nine others, including three children, were wounded during the incident in Gorlovka, blaming the Ukrainian army for the shelling.

In a separate development, a 55-year-old woman was killed in a mortar attack that targeted residential areas of Popasna town in Lugansk region, regional authorities said.

Casualties were also reported among the combatants.

Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the government's military operation in eastern regions, said one Ukrainian soldier was killed and eight others were wounded in confrontation with insurgents in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the self-styled defense ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic said that upsurge in clashes with Ukrainian army left at least two insurgent fighters dead and two others wounded.

The casualty toll over the past day was one of the highest in eastern Ukraine since mid-February, when a cease-fire was declared by the warring sides. Endi