Donetsk airport remains the focal point of tensions in the Donbas anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone; there has been a rise in militants drone flights, Ukrainian Presidential Administration spokesman Oleksandr Motuzianyk told reporters on Thursday.

"Tensions flare near Donetsk airport where the enemy has returned to the tactics of round-the-clock attacks on our positions. True, heavy armaments are being used on the Avdiyivka-Pisky frontline only sporadically but hostile snipers have been very active there," Motuzianyk said.

Nine drones were seen flying in the ATO zone (all of them in Donetsk region, for instance, near Avdiyivka and Mariupol), he said.

The militants used infantry combat vehicles, small arms and grenade launchers near the town of Luhanske in the Donetsk sector, and Ukrainian army positions came under attack from 120mm mortars and various types of grenade launchers in Novhorodske, Motuzianyk said.

The militants thrice used various types of grenade launchers and an 82mm mortar on the Schastia-Triokhizbenka frontline along the Siversky Donets River in Luhansk region, he said.

Krasnohorivka was the epicenter of confrontation on Wednesday, the presidential administration spokesman said, adding that multiple mortar and tank shelling incidents were observed there.

Four Grad rockets were fired on Ukrainian positions in the town of Kurakhivka, twelve kilometers from the frontline, he said. According to operative information, the militants keep Grad-P (Partizan) launchers close to the contact line and fires them from time to time, he said.

A clash between Ukrainian army servicemen and the militants occurred near the village of Novotroitske in the Mariupol area on Wednesday. In addition, two attacks by use of 82mm mortars and a series of grenade launcher shots were observed in Shyrokyne on Wednesday.