Here's an update from our news desk on the reported upsurge in fighting near Maryinka:
Ukraine's military says separatists have launched an offensive using tanks, mortars, and artillery toward government positions west of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.
Army spokesman Andriy Lysenko said on June 3 that the rebels launched "a massive bombardment on our positions near Maryinka and Krasnohorivka including from heavy weapons."
Ukrainian forces are "holding off all the attacks," he added.
Maryinka is located 15 kilometers west of Donetsk.
Senior separatist commander Eduard Basurin was quoted as saying clashes were still going on in that area as of 1.45 p.m. local time, and accused government troops of firing artillery at rebel forces.
Meanwhile, rebel officials said shooting cut off electricity at the Skochinsky mine in the Donetsk region, trapping more than 350 miners underground. One official said the miners were being evacuated. (Reuters, Interfax)
Here's an item on some fatalities in eastern Ukraine today -- from RFE/RL's news desk:
Authorities in eastern Ukraine say two civilians in a government-controlled area have been killed as combat flares between the armed forces and separatist rebels.
Hennadiy Moskal, the Ukrainian head of the Luhansk region, said in an online statement that an elderly couple died when their car was struck by mortar fire early on June 3.
Moskal said the strike occurred 20 kilometers from the front line.
In the Donetsk region, rebels said one civilian was killed and another suffered injures in an artillery attack on the city of Yenakiyeve. Twenty houses were said to be damaged in the attack.
Eastern Ukraine continues to be embroiled in sporadic fighting between government forces and Russian-backed separatists despite a cease-fire agreement signed in mid-February.
The conflict has killed more than 6,400 people since April 2014.
(AP, Reuters)