DONETSK, July 21./ITAR-TASS/. The Ukrainian army carrying out a military operation in southeast Ukraine launched an intensive offensive on Donetsk on Monday.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said earlier on Monday that combat operations in the range of 40 km (25 miles) around the crash site of a Malaysian Boeing 777 airliner must be stopped.

Three civilians have died in Donetsk in the city’s shelling by the Ukrainian military. Bomb shelters in Donetsk are full of people. Local residents have been unable to get out of the city’s districts shelled by the Ukrainian military. A part of the city has been subjected to Grad multiple launch rocket fire.

Three stretches of the water pipeline supplying water to the Donetsk Region from the Northern Donets-Donbass canal have been damaged in the battles. Repairs cannot be done due to continued fighting and water supply to populated areas has been significantly limited.

Ukrainian army units have advanced on the settlements of Avdeyevka and Peski, using tanks, motorized infantry in armored personnel carriers and massive artillery fire.

A battle is raging near a missile army unit outside Donetsk.

Pro-Kiev troops and local militias in the southeastern Ukrainian Donetsk and Luhansk regions are involved in fierce clashes as the Ukrainian armed forces are conducting a military operation to regain control over the breakaway regions, which on May 11 proclaimed their independence at local referendums.

During the military operation, Kiev has used armored vehicles, heavy artillery and attack aviation. Many buildings have been destroyed and tens of thousands of people have had to flee Ukraine’s embattled south-east.