Three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and seven injured during a new flare up in clashes between Kiev forces and eastern separatists, the Ukrainian military said Tuesday.

Three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and seven injured during a new flare up in clashes between Kiev forces and eastern separatists, the Ukrainian military said Tuesday.

Military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said fighting along the 500-kilometre (300)-mile) front had "escalated", accusing the rebels of violating a shaky truce agreement on 79 occasions since Monday afternoon.

He said much of the fighting centered around Zaitseve, a town in the disputed no man's land between government forces and the insurgents that sits 55 kilometers (30 miles) north of the rebels' de facto capital Donetsk.

Separatist authorities accused Kiev's forces of shelling Zaitseve with mortars, tanks, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms, damaging 27 houses.

Ukraine accuses the Kremlin of supplying the separatists with heavy weapons and some ground support, a charge which Moscow denies.

More than 9,000 people have been killed and 1.5 million displaced since the predominantly Russian-speaking Donetsk and Lugansk regions revolted against Ukraine's new pro-Western government in April 2014.

A series of truce agreements have helped significantly reduce the fighting, although sporadic clashes continue on the frontline.