DONETSK, August 15./ITAR-TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces on Friday opened artillery fire on the center of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, eyewitnesses reported from the site.

According to them, some six salvos were made on Donetsk's downtown neighborhoods. An artillery shell hit the territory of the Donetsk Metallurgical Plant, damaging a gas pipe, which prompted efforts to halt one of the plant’s blast furnaces. Employees are trying to cope with the flames. They assume that the Ukrainian army aimed their strike at a military unit not far from the plant.

No civilians have yet been reported killed or injured.

Troops loyal to Kiev 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, conducted since mid-April, Kiev has used armored vehicles, heavy artillery and attack aviation. Hundreds of civilians have been killed in it. Many buildings have been destroyed and tens of thousands of people have had to flee Ukraine’s war-torn Southeast.