Kiev, Ukraine civilians were killed when shells hit a trolley bus station in the
eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, the City Council there said Thursday,
as the months-long conflict in the country's east showed little sign of
easing.
In total, 10 civilians
have been killed and 20 injured in shelling of four city districts in
the past 24 hours, the Donetsk City Council said on its website.
"As of now, the situation remains difficult," the statement reads.
The
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has a
monitoring mission in Ukraine, said it was still assessing what had
happened in the bus incident. Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug told a
news conference that an OCSE patrol had seen seven bodies near a vehicle
that had been hit.
Ukraine's Defense
Ministry blamed pro-Russian separatists for the attack, saying it was
launched from areas they control. Russia's Foreign Ministry, though,
demanded an investigation and criticized Ukraine for its shelling of
cities.
Donetsk
has been a stronghold for the rebels, who have been battling government
forces for control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions since the spring.
Militants
shelled two civilian areas elsewhere in the Donetsk region early
Thursday, Ukraine's state-run Ukrinform news agency reported, citing
Donetsk regional police Chief Vyacheslav Abroskin.
A Ukrainian woman waits for shelling to abate as she shelters inside a building.
The
reported shelling comes after talks Wednesday in Berlin among the
foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France aimed at
resolving the crisis through the implementation of a peace deal agreed
to last year.
After Wednesday's talks,
the four foreign ministers condemned the continuing violence and called
for the peace deal agreed to in Minsk, Belarus, last September to be
respected.
Fighting in the Donetsk and
Luhansk regions "has severely escalated causing the loss of many human
lives including civilians. This must stop immediately and the regime of
quiet must be restored," the ministers said.
They said "tangible progress" must be made on full implementation of the Minsk pact ahead of a planned peace summit.
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