In turn, the Ukrainian army officials accused the rebels of firing 152 and 122-mm shells into the area near the Donetsk airport, killing one civilian and injuring several others.
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The situation had escalated after the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed separatists accused each other on July 19 of shelling residential areas in rebel-held Donetsk.
These were the first such attacks on central Donetsk since a February truce.
A Reuters witness reported seeing the body of man in a burning building, though it was unclear if it was the same person.
Weapons with a calibre of over 100mm were supposed to have been removed from the battle field under the ceasefire agreement signed in the Belarus capital Minsk in February that aimed to end a conflict that has killed more than 6,500 people since April 2014.
On Sunday the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and neighbouring Lugansk said they had begun removing weapons under 100 mm, as part of what they called their “own peace initiative”.
“The vast majority of shelling and armed attacks by the rebels take place at night to avoid attracting the attention of worldwide observers”, Lysenko said.
According to BBC, Ukraine said that the separatists themselves opened fire on the city while the latter claimed that one civilian died in the overnight attacks.
Senior rebel commander Eduard Basurin denied separatists were responsible for the attacks. “Do you believe we can shell ourselves?” he said by phone. [We are] demonstrating the adherence to the Minsk agreements, [and] we are taking this step openly and unilaterally, hoping that as a result for the same will be done in response by the Ukrainian side.
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The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is monitoring the ceasefire, has said neither side has fully withdrawn heavy artillery from the frontline as required by the peace deal.
