Deaths shatter brief lull across war-torn region as international experts head to wreckage of downed plane

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Fourteen people have been killed, including at least 10 Ukrainian soldiers, in fighting overnight close to the crash site of downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a Ukrainian military spokesman has said.

"In total it is known that 14 people died but the bodies of four of them have not been identified and could be Ukrainian soldiers or terrorists," Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky said on Friday.

He added that "so far we are talking about 10 Ukrainian servicemen dead" in the clash, in the town of Shakhtarsk 15 miles from the MH17 site.

Earlier the Ukrainian military had said its troops were ambushed by insurgent fighters.

The deaths shattered a brief lull across the war-torn region as international experts headed to the wreckage of the downed plane to try to begin a stalled investigation into the attack on the passenger jet.

The Ukrainian military said it was relaunching a broader offensive against separatist fighters following a day-long ceasefire but insisted troops would not carry out operations in the immediate vicinity of the crash site.

The military said on Friday it had made fresh gains by taking the village of Novyi Svit, 15 miles south-east of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, and was waging operations to secure the volatile border with Russia.