The situation was relatively quiet in Donetsk overnight, with sounds of small-arms weapons heard in several parts of the city, according to local residents.

By 0900 sounds of gunfire and explosions are heard again near the airport, with plumes of smoke rising into the air, Donetsk City Council said on its Web site on Wednesday.

By 0800, 39 transformer substations remained without power in the Kyivsky, Kuibyshevsky and Petrovsky districts of the city. Public transport services are running as usual.