KIEV, Ukraine鈥擳hree Ukrainian civilians and a soldier were reported killed on Tuesday in the latest wave of fighting across the country鈥檚 separatist east.
The Ukrainian military said another 10 soldiers were wounded in Grad rocket and mortar attacks by pro-Russian insurgents based around the eastern industrial city of Donetsk.
The upsurge in violence came as the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France ended a meeting Monday without being able to set a date for a hoped-for peace summit on ending the conflict.
The Donetsk administration said two civilians were killed in the rebel stronghold overnight. Another person was killed in a small town to the northeast of Donetsk.
鈥淭he sounds of gunfire and loud explosions were heard in almost every district of the city鈥� on Tuesday morning, the Donetsk city administration said in a statement.
Ukrainian military spokesperson Andriy Lysenko said the government鈥檚 military positions had come under attack 84 times since Monday morning鈥攁bout six times the usual number recorded in the nine-month war.
The latest casualties were reported after the foreign ministers of Germany and France failed to help their counterparts from Moscow and Kiev bridge their differences over ways to end a conflict that has claimed more than 4,700 lives.
Ukraine accuses Russia of arming the insurgents and refusing to withdraw its own troops from the eastern war zone鈥攕oldiers Moscow denies having ever sent.
Donetsk鈥攁 once bustling city of nearly one million that now stands half vacant and suffering chronic power and water shortages鈥攈as been the target of especially heavy rocket and artillery fire in the past week.
Kiev accuses the rebels of escalating their strikes in order to undermine the chances of Russia agreeing to a settlement that preserves Ukraine鈥檚 eastern border.