Donetsk, Ukraine: Civilians were killed on both sides in heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine on Friday, while an attempt to reopen peace talks in neighbouring Belarus was aborted before it began.

Rebel delegates flew to the Belarus capital Minsk, only to announce that no talks would take place on Friday and they were flying straight back to Moscow. Any talks would be the first since a five-month-old ceasefire collapsed with a new rebel advance last week.

The main rebel stronghold Donetsk echoed to the sound of heavy artillery fire, including salvoes from multiple rocket launchers and heavier thuds from artillery coming from the direction of the airport, a constant battlefield.

A Reuters cameraman in Donetsk saw four covered bodies near a cultural centre that had been hit by artillery while residents were queuing outside for humanitarian aid. A fifth body lay in a badly-damaged car nearby. A woman was weeping by one of the bodies. A kilometre (half mile) away, a sixth dead person lay where a trolleybus had been hit.

In the nearby rebel-held frontline town of Horlivka, eight civilians were killed in rocket attacks the previous day, the mayor's office said. Ukraine authorities did not comment.

Kiev's military said five of its servicemen had also been killed and 23 wounded in fighting in the past 24 hours, describing the situation in the conflict zone as ‘hard’.

The Ukrainian foreign ministry said it was ready to participate in talks either Friday or Saturday but was waiting for an agreement on draft documents.