Ukrainian monitors from the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of issues related to a ceasefire (JCCC) report that the militants have shelled a number of communities in the Donetsk region.

"On August 23-24, a shift on duty and the leading staff of the Ukrainian delegation to the JCCC made 35 attempts to stop the firing opened by the militants with the use of heavy weapons banned by the Minsk agreements, and more than 20 of these attempts were successful. In particular, JCCC officers stopped the firing 18 times at the Donetsk, five at the Luhansk, 11 at the Horlivka, and four at the Mariupol fronts," the Ukrainian delegation to the JCCC said in a report handed to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (OSCE SMM).

On Monday evening, the militants fired artillery rounds on Avdiyivka, causing significant damage to several residential houses, and one of these rounds burst on a children's playground, it said.

The attacks also damaged power transmission lines, leaving a significant portion of the town without electricity; it would take two to three days to restore power supply, it said.