Shelling in Donetsk kills six, wounds 15

Shelling killed six people and wounded 15 others in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, the city council said yesterday.

It is the worst reported violence since a cease-fire between Russian-backed rebels and Ukrainian troops took effect on 5 September.

Fighting around the eastern city's government-held airport has left its northern neighborhoods in the crossfire, with heavy shelling in two neighbourhoods leading to the casualties and damaging both homes and offices on Sunday, the council said.

A spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council said that Ukrainian forces had not shelled any residential areas.

Both the rebel and government sides have said they are rearming in case the fighting starts anew.

The fighting in eastern Ukraine began in mid-April, a month after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea. It has claimed at least 3,000 civilian lives, according to the U.N.