More Than 1,000 Children Living Rough in Donetsk

About 1,100 children are living rough in underground shelters in Ukraine's rebel-held eastern city of Donetsk, the U.N. children's agency said Tuesday.

"We were able to assess 12 bomb shelters where there are adults and parents with the children," UNICEF's representative in Ukraine Giovanna Barberis said.

"They are not going out, they are not going to school," she told reporters in Geneva through a video link.

"Children in the affected areas have been suffering enormous levels of stress due to the ongoing conflict," she said.

"The most vulnerable are those who are forced to seek refuge in unsanitary, crowded and freezing cellars and bomb shelters."

She said there had been unconfirmed reports of children being recruited to fight.

Pro-Russian rebels have made sweeping gains in eastern Ukraine amid a surge in fighting after a September ceasefire unraveled, sparking international concern.

The EU is considering fresh sanctions against Russia after a bloody upsurge in the conflict which has claimed around 5,100 lives since March.