KRAMATORSK, June 02, /ITAR-TASS/. Powerful explosions and intensive shooting from automatic weapons are heard near the Kramatorsk airport, a people’s militia representative told Itar-Tass on Monday.

“Explosions can be heard for several kilometers and a strong smell of powder is in the air,” the source said.

Earlier reports said that three people had died in an armed clash between militiamen and Ukrainian law enforcers near the village of Yasnogorsk at the foot of the Karachun Hill where the Ukrainian forces are based.

“Three people, presumably militiamen, died in a light car explosion. Ambulances, which tried to evacuate the wounded, came under fire. Their wheels are shot through,” the representative said, adding that the militia fighters had taken up positions around the ambulances.

In the meanwhile, a massive Ukraine army artillery strike left the village of Semyonovka in the outskirts of Slavyansk, the Donetsk region, without light, a local militia spokesman told Itar-Tass on Monday.

“Shells were fired from Karachun Hill. A power cable was damaged and broken,” the spokesman said.

Shots from automatic weapons and explosions could be heard in the north-eastern part of Slavyansk earlier on Monday.

"It is still unclear where the shooting took place. No casualties or destruction has been reported,” a militia representative said.

A day earlier, on Sunday, the Ukrainian army shelled the territory of the Slavtyazhmash plant, damaging a school and partly destroying a kindergarten building.

A children’s orphanage and a research institute of high voltages also came under artillery fire. No casualty reports were received.

An air strike in Lugansk claimed the lives of five civilians, including a public health minister of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic, Natalya Arkhipova, the press service of the Lugansk People’s Republic told Itar-Tass on Monday.

“I confirm the death of Natalya Arkhipova. As far as I know five people, all of them civilians, are dead. At least 10 people are wounded. Many of them are in serious condition,” the press service said.