A Reuters reporter in central Donetsk heard shelling through the night and saw the smoke from burning buildings in the outlying Petrovsky district drifting as far as the city center.

Many homes in Luhansk, which is close to the border with Russia, also have no electricity or water.

The Ukrainian military said it had suffered no losses in the latest fighting.

Efforts to end the conflict, in which the United Nations says more than 1,100 people have been killed, have stalled.

The United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions on Russia over its role in Ukraine but say Putin has done nothing to show he is changing policy. U.S. President Barack Obama said after speaking to Putin on Friday that "sometimes people don't always act rationally.”

Dutch and Australian forensic experts have gained access to the site of downed Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 for three successive days and have recovered more human remains to send back to the Netherlands for forensic tests.
On Sunday they also sent some personal belongings to the government-controlled city of Kharkiv and then to the Netherlands.

The United States says the separatists probably shot down the Boeing 777 by mistake with a Russian-supplied missile, but Moscow denies the accusation and blames the disaster on Kiev. The victims included 196 Dutch citizens, 27 Australians and 43 Malaysians. (rt/ez)