LUHANSK, July 31. /ITAR-TASS/. Three civilians, including a teenager, have been killed and another seven wounded in the Ukrainian army’s shelling of Luhansk in east Ukraine in the past twenty-four hours, the city council’s press office said on Thursday.

The number of civilians killed in Luhansk since Kiev launched its military operation in the country’s east has exceeded 100 people, the press office said.

“Civilians continue to be killed in the regional center,” the press office said. “A total of 102 Luhansk residents, including mothers, sisters, children, husbands and fathers, have been killed” since Kiev intensified its military operation in the country’s east, the press office said.

Artillery shells have destroyed ten residential buildings and caused seven fires in the city, the press office said.

The Ukrainian army’s shelling has left over 50,000 households without electricity, more than 5,000 families without water and over 4,000 Luhansk residents without household gas, the press office said.

Pro-Kiev troops and local militias in the 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, 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 east.