Heavy shelling rocked Ukraine's eastern city of Donetsk Wednesday, causing heavy casualties, authorities said.

According to the press service of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office, shells hit two hospitals and a kindergarten in the residential district of the city at about 11 a.m. local time ( GMT 0900), killing "from 4 to 10 civilians."

The exact number of casualties will be released later, the press service said.

Meanwhile, reports from the self-styled emergency ministry of self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic suggested that at least 15 people were killed as the result of the shelling.

In other developments in Donetsk, at least three civilians died and eight more were wounded after they were caught in the crossfire between government troops and pro-independence rebels overnight, local municipal council said.

Government troops and insurgents have been locked in fierce confrontation in eastern Ukraine since April 2014, leaving more than 5,350 people dead and about 12,300 others wounded.

The latest round of peace talks in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, with the purpose to stop the bloodshed ended without tangible results in late January, with both sides accusing each other of unwillingness to reach an agreement. Endite

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