LUHANSK, July 23. /ITAR-TASS/. At least three civilians have been killed and another 10 injured in the shelling of east Ukraine’s Luhansk by the Ukrainian army over the last 24 hours, the city council’s press office said on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian military shelled several districts of the city, seriously damaging several dozen residential buildings, destroying a house in Vostochnaya Street and smashing windows in schools, the press office said.

The Ukrainian army’s artillery fire damaged the city’s vital infrastructural facilities. The targeted fire damaged several electric power substations and cut off electricity supply in several districts and an emergency care hospital.

Over 35,000 households have been left without electricity and over 4,000 families without water supply.

Gas pipeline stretches have been damaged in several districts of the city. Over 300 families have been left without household gas in the settlement of Yekaterinovka.

Pro-Kiev troops and local militias in the south-eastern 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 that 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.