Five people have been killed and 26 wounded, including 10 service personnel, in rocket strikes on the town of Kramatorsk on Tuesday, the government-controlled regional administration said in a statement.
The strike on the town was one of two - the other hitting the headquarters of Kiev's military operations in the east against pro-Russian separatists, President Petro Poroshenko said.
This as, hundreds of Russian troops started military exercises in southern Russia near the border with Ukraine on Tuesday, in a show of strength before a summit on the Ukraine crisis in the Belarussian capital Minsk.
News agencies quoted military officials as saying that about 2,000 Russian reconnaissance troops had started large-scale exercises in the southern military district.
Separately, more than 600 soldiers had started training in the southern Crimea peninsula, and in Kamchatka, in Russia's east, 2,500 soldiers of the Pacific Fleet and joint forces were checked for military readiness.
The man-oeuvres in southern Russia would include training on tracking devices to determine enemy movements in bad visibility. In Crimea, soldiers would undergo tactical and shooting training, the news agencies reported.
The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany are expected to meet in Minsk on Wednesday to seek an end to fighting in eastern Ukraine, which has killed more than 5,000 people since last April.
The West accuses Russia of backing an advance in recent weeks by separatists, which scuppered a ceasefire agreed last September. Moscow denies it is involved.
Also on Tuesday, Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said supplying arms to Ukraine is a
final option, but one worth avoiding, as it could trigger an
escalation of the conflict in the country's east.
"Supplying arms to Ukraine is the last potential option, and
it is worth avoiding it," he told public radio Jedynka.
Separately, the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper quoted Siemoniak
as saying Poland had no plans of sending heavy military
equipment to Ukraine.
LBCI/REUTERS