An adviser to the Ukrainian president said on Facebook that three Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and nearly 31 wounded during an outbreak of fighting in the area of Maryinka, eastern Ukraine, on Wednesday.

The adviser, Yuriy Biriukov, said the weapons used by the militants had included multiple rocket launchers.

He said fighting was mostly over by 5:45 p.m. but that "there is still no complete silence either."

He claimed that "the situation stabilized practically immediately" after the Ukrainian forces used weapons banned under the Minsk agreements.

"We used everything in making our responses that the Minsk agreements allow using, and several times refrained from using what couldn't be used. The chief of the general staff received a directive from the supreme commander-in-chief that, if the situation didn't stabilize, something be used that wasn't allowed to be used. By a strange coincidence, the situation stabilized practically immediately," Biriukov said.