A worrying development in Donetsk (from RFE/RL's news desk):
Pro-Russian separatist authorities in eastern Ukraine say rescuers are working to evacuate nearly 500 coal miners who were trapped underground when their pit lost power after a shell hit an electricity substation.
Separatists who hold the provincial capital of Donetsk said 496 miners were trapped in the city's huge Zasyadko coal mine.
A pro-rebel news site later said 110 of the miners had reached the surface and rescue operations were still continuing.
There was no way to independently confirm the accounts.
Rebels who have seized parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces frequently accuse government forces of shelling civilian areas during a conflict that has killed more than 5,000 people since April.
Ukraine also accuses the rebels of hitting civilians in attacks and or putting them at risk by firing from civilian areas.
(AFP, TASS, Interfax)