Three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and another seven were wounded in the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) zone in the last day, presidential administration spokesman for ATO issues Oleksandr Motuzianyk has said.

"Three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and seven were wounded in hostilities in the past 24 hours," he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Tensions escalated in Donbas in the past 24 hours, with militant forces firing more than 200 mines at Ukrainian army positions in the area, Motuzianyk said.

All in all, the militants violated the ceasefire 79 times in the past 24 hours, using heavy weapons on 26 occasions.

According to Motuzianyk, the militants breached the ceasefire twice in Luhansk region. On both occasions, the attacks continued for 20 minutes, and Ukrainian servicemen returned fire on one occasion.

There have been ten mortar strikes in the Zaitseve-Mayorsk area in the Donetsk zone. The militant forces also used 120mm Gvozdika artillery systems, Motuzianyk added.

A brief armed clash occurred between the villages of Mykolayivka and Dokuchayevsk.