One Dead as Hospital Hit in Central Donetsk Shelling

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One person was killed and two injured Thursday when a hospital in the center of the besieged rebel stronghold of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine was hit by shelling, local health authorities said.

"Today as a result of a mortar shell hitting the... first Donetsk city hospital, one person died and two were injured," the regional health administration said in a statement, adding that no medics were among the casualties.

City authorities said mortar fire erupted around a key rebel base in the occupied building of Ukraine's SBU security agency in the city center.

This is the first sustained shelling of the center of the one-million strong city, after government forces said they were preparing to retake the mining hub from insurgent fighters.

The city council warned local residents "to get off the streets and seek shelter in a safe location".

An AFP journalist saw a fitness center with a large hole blown in the wall and its windows blown out.

A Ukrainian military spokesman confirmed that "offensive operations" were being carried out around Donetsk and eastern Ukraine's second largest city of Lugansk.

Seven soldiers were killed and 19 injured in clashes during the past 24 hours of fighting, he added.

Artillery fire overnight meanwhile killed three civilians and injured five more in the Budyonivsky district in southeastern Donetsk, city authorities said.

The mortar blasts damaged three apartment blocks and five houses, while shelling in a village on the western outskirts of the city also destroyed two houses but no casualties were reported, the city council said in a statement.

An air strike hit near the center of Donetsk for the first time on Wednesday, stoking fears that the city's tree-lined streets could become the next battleground in nearly four months of civil war that has killed over 1,300 people.

Civilians have been hit hardest, with more than 285,000 fleeing their homes, according to the U.N. refugee agency, which warned of "a massive exodus" if fighting intensifies.

Across the region, local authorities in Lugansk have warned of a looming "humanitarian catastrophe" as water, food and fuel supplies have dried up.

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