Local residents have told observers of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) that armed people in Donetsk were using the roofs of their houses as a firing points, OSCE SMM Principal Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug said.

"On Monday night our monitors recorded 105 undermined explosions west and north-west of their position in Donetsk city centre. Many of those explosions happened in Kuibysheve district. Just two days before our monitors actually went there and saw damage to residential buildings. They were also told by residents that armed men were using the roofs of their buildings to fire weapons," Hug said at a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.

He said that they found this to be common practice.

"Let me remind the sides that using densely populated residential areas as firing positions – or even locating military hardware in such areas – is banned," Hug said.

On Sunday night an SMM unmanned aerial vehicle spotted exchange of fire in so-called 'DPR'-controlled Mineralne, ten kilometers north-east of Donetsk, which is the violation of the Minsk agreements.

The SMM monitors registered surge in violence in the area of Kyiv-controlled Avdiyivka. On Tuesday, for example, the monitors recorded in Avdiyivka 227 explosions from 152mm artillery, 120mm and 82mm mortar. On the same day, other SMM monitors in Yasynuvata heard 113 undetermined explosions and 46 single shots of small-arms fire.

"The Yasynuvata-Avdiyivka flashpoint has been with us for some time now. It is a clear example of how once-relatively quiet areas turn violent when the sides position themselves closer to one another," the deputy chief monitor said.

He also said that repair works were required near government-controlled Berezove to fix electricity lines downed by shelling, but this was impossible because the area was heavily mined.