Eight people killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine

AVDIIVKA: Fighting between government troops and Russia-backed separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine escalated today, killing at least eight people overnight, injuring dozens and briefly trapping 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 elevators not working, the miners had been trapped underground for several hours before local authorities found the backup generators outside the mine to get the elevators working. By midday today, at least 152 of 200 men had been able to get out.

Separatist military spokesman Eduard Basurin, in an interview with Russian state Rossiya 24 television today, 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 yesterday 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 cease-fire deal struck in Minsk in 2015 has helped to reduce but not stop the fighting.

Oleksandr Turchynov, chairman of the Ukrainian Security and Defense Council, said today that heavy shelling around Avdiivka, on the northern outskirts of the separatist stronghold of Donetsk, killed at least three troops and also injured 24 more.