Shells land near the Ukrainian Minister of the Interior

A dozen shells exploded this Saturday a few hundred meters from the minister Ukrainian of the Interior, Denis Monastirski, when he was visiting the front line with pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country, AFP reporters said.

The incident occurred near the village of Novoluganske, which has hosted several senior Ukrainian officials amid ongoing tensions with Russia.

Minister Monastirski was forced to take cover when the shells exploded, shortly after giving on-camera interviews to international media, AFP journalists at the scene said.

There are no signs that anyone was injured by the shells, which fell as the minister was leaving a frontline area where he had given interviews, in the trenches separating government forces from rebels.

The journalists and officials left the area soon after.

Both the government and separatist forces accuse each other of escalating the conflict in recent days, with Ukraine reporting the death of a soldier on Friday, the fourth in two months.