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At least eight dead following renewed fighting in eastern Ukraine

A worker, pictured in 2015, carries a metal rod at the front-line Avdiivka coking plant in eastern Ukraine Picture by AP
A worker, pictured in 2015, carries a metal rod at the front-line Avdiivka coking plant in eastern Ukraine Picture by AP A worker, pictured in 2015, carries a metal rod at the front-line Avdiivka coking plant in eastern Ukraine Picture by AP

At least eight people have been killed as fighting between government troops and Russia-backed separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine escalated on Tuesday.

The fighting briefly trapped more than 200 coalminers underground, the warring sides reported.

Rebels in Donetsk said an electricity sub-station was damaged in shelling, cutting power to the Zasyadko coal mine in Donetsk.

The mine is notorious for its safety standards: 33 people were killed there in 2015 by a methane blast.

With lifts not working, the miners had been trapped underground for several hours before local authorities found the back-up generators outside the mine to get the elevators working.

By late afternoon all 207 men were able to get out.

Separatist military spokesman Eduard Basurin, in an interview with Russian state Rossiya 24 television on Tuesday, denied reports that separatist shelling cut power lines and heating stations in Avdiivka, saying they had been damaged earlier.

The artillery shelling, which appears to be the worst in many months, was concentrated around the government-controlled town of Avdiivka, home to a giant coking plant.

Its director said on Monday that preparations were being made to stop production, something rarely done throughout the conflict that has claimed more than 9,600 lives since it began in 2014.

A ceasefire deal struck in Minsk in 2015 has helped to reduce but not stop the fighting.

The press office of the Ukrainian government's operation in the east said that heavy shelling around Avdiivka, on the northern outskirts of the separatist stronghold of Donetsk, killed at least three troops and injured 20 more.

The office also reported an unspecified number of civilian casualties. The rebels turned down the government's offer to cease fire to allow the removal of the dead and wounded, the operation headquarters said.

In Donetsk, the rebels' Donetsk News Agency reported four rebel fighters have died and seven were injured overnight as well as three civilians.

One civilian was killed in shelling in Donetsk, Mr Basurin told Russian news agencies.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin, on Tuesday accused the Ukrainian government of provoking the crisis.

The Kremlin has "reliable information" that Ukrainian volunteer battalions crossed the frontline on Monday night and tried to capture rebel territory, Mr Peskov said.

Pavlo Zhebrivsky, head of the administration in charge of the government-controlled parts of the Donetsk region, said his office was working on a plan to evacuate 12,000 residents from Avdiivka.

Donetsk News Agency cited the rebel military command accusing government troops of attacking their positions Tuesday morning in the south of the conflict zone, to the east of Mariupol.

Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko had cut short his visit to Germany on Monday because of the fighting.