Shelling hit areas near two key cities in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, intensifying fears that a ceasefire that took effect less than two days ago may be falling apart, reports GHN based on CNN.
The fledgling truce between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian rebels began Friday evening, and both sides were already accusing each other of violating it by Saturday.
Sporadic artillery and machine gun fire rang out in the early hours of Sunday on the outskirts the strategic port city of Mariupol. A gas station was set on fire, and cars carried wounded civilians down the roads.
Shelling and explosions were also heard near the airport of the flashpoint city of Donetsk on Sunday morning, the city council said on its website.
In both cities, the source of the weapons fire wasn't immediately clear.
The Mariupol city government said that pro-Russian rebels had carried out the shelling near the city overnight. It said one woman was killed and three people wounded.
The Russian state news agency ITAR-Tass late Saturday quoted rebel officials as saying that Ukrainian forces continued to shell Donetsk and rebel positions near Mariupol. The RIA Novosti news agency reported that four Donetsk residents were killed in the shelling.
Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council spokesman Col. Andriy Lysenko told reporters in Kiev on Saturday that the situation was calmer than before the truce, but that there had been a number of "provocations" by rebels. They included 10 instances of shelling in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, he said.
In a sign the government was still hoping to stick to the ceasefire deal, Lysenko said a prisoner exchange would begin soon, although he didn't specify a time or date.