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MOSCOW (AP) — Three troops have been killed and six wounded in eastern Ukraine in the most recent day of fighting, the Ukrainian president's office said Thursday.
Fighting between government forces and separatists rebels has recently intensified despite a 2015 truce. More than 9,500 people have been killed in the conflict so far.
In the past 24 hours, separatists have shelled government positions twice as much as the day before, said Olexander Motuzyanyk, the Ukrainian presidential envoy for the operation in the east.
President Petro Poroshenko warned of a further flare-up of hostilities in the east and said that martial law could be imposed if the fighting gets worse.
"In case the situation in the east and in Crimea flares up, we will have to introduce martial law and declare a mobilization," Poroshenko said in comments carried by the Interfax news agency.
Separatist officials in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk also reported heavy shelling of their positions in Donetsk and Horlivka Wednesday night, where the shelling cut electricity supply to hundreds of homes and a coal mine.
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