(AVDIIVKA, Ukraine) ? Heavy artillery and rockets hit residential areas in eastern Ukraine Tuesday amid a new outburst of fighting between government troops and Russia-backed separatist rebels, leaving at least eight people dead and dozens injured.
Salvos of heavy-caliber artillery were heard throughout the night and late morning in Avdiivka, a town on the northern outskirts of the separatist stronghold of Donetsk where residents have been without electricity for days. In Donetsk, at least one civilian was killed by shrapnel.
Fighting around Avdiivka has cut water and power supplies for most of the town and it was left without heating in the dead of winter. Temperatures plunged to minus 18 Celsius (0 F) on Tuesday morning.
The warring sides blamed each other for the spike in hostilities, the worst in months. The Ukrainian government was considering evacuating 12,000 residents from Avdiivka, Pavlo Zhebrivsky, head of the administration in charge of the government-controlled parts of the Donetsk region, said on Facebook.
With no signs of an immediate evacuation in sight, some residents went to a local bus station, hoping to get away from the heavy shelling.
Eastern Ukraine Rocked by Fighting Between Government Troops and Russia-Backed Rebels