Ukraine Crisis: Two Children Killed After Shell Hits Stadium Near School in Donetsk

Two children have been killed and four people injured after a shell struck a stadium near a school in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, according to local separatists.

"All the wounded were taken to the Donetsk regional trauma unit," Natalya Yemchenko, an official with the Donetsk People's Republic, was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

"They are now in intensive care. One of them is in critical condition and three other are in a state of moderate severity."

"There were children – a lot of them – at the stadium," Yemchenko added in a post on her Facebook page.

According to Russia Today, local journalist Andrey Krasnoshchekov said that those who were struck were boys playing football.

"Neither the ambulance, nor the Donetsk militias have reached the two dead bodies yet. It's only us [journalists] and crying parents and relatives here," tweeted Krasnoshchekov.

Rebels in eastern Ukraine have claimed that President Petro Poroshenko has broken the peace agreement signed between Kiev and the separatists in September by proposing to cancel autonomy for the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Poroshenko had this week stated that the rebel elections had jeopardised "the entire peace process" following a conflict which has taken the lives of more than 4,000 people since April.