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At Least 6 Killed in Ukraine After Shells Hit Donetsk

Shells hit a cultural center and a trolleybus in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Friday, killing at least six people, journalists in the city said. Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters

Shells hit a cultural center and a trolleybus in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Friday, killing at least six people, journalists in the city said.

A cameraman saw four covered bodies near the cultural center and a fifth dead person in a badly-damaged car nearby. A woman was weeping by one of the bodies. Separately, near a damaged trolleybus, he saw the body of a sixth dead person.

The separatist administration in the city said at least seven people were killed, including five in the strike on the cultural center and at least two when an artillery shell hit the trolleybus, just over 1 kilometer (half a mile) away.

The past week in eastern Ukraine has seen the worst fighting since a cease-fire agreement five months ago.

There was no immediate word from the Kiev military side on the attacks, which came as preparations were under way for a meeting of the so-called "contact group" bringing together representatives of Ukraine, Russia, rebel leaders and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

More than 5,000 people have been killed since the conflict erupted last April pitting government forces against Russian-backed rebels who have declared their own "people's republics" in the east of Ukraine.

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