Kiev, Sep 16 (IANS): Heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine since Monday has left at least seven people dead despite a declared ceasefire, authorities said Tuesday.

Three government soldiers were killed and two others injured as rebel forces intensified attacks, Xinhua quoted Andrei Lysenko, spokesman for Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, as saying.

Meanwhile, Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-claimed Donetsk People's Republic, accused Ukrainian soldiers of violating the ceasefire, saying that he saw no point in further peace talks.

The most serious clashes over the past day occurred in Donetsk city, where government troops and insurgents traded rocket and artillery fire near the airport and in a residential area in the northwestern part of the city.

The fighting in eastern Ukraine escalated during the weekend, leaving six civilians dead. Insurgents and government forces blamed each other for initiating the attacks.

Despite the ceasefire agreement being violated, the two sides continued exchanging prisoners of war as part of the deal. Over the past day, insurgents handed over 12 Ukrainian soldiers.

The truce between government troops and insurgents started Sep 5 after representatives of Ukraine's government and insurgent leadership inked a ceasefire deal to pave the way for a solution to the Ukraine crisis.

According to UN estimates, at least 3,171 people have been killed and 8,061 wounded during the five-month-old conflict in eastern Ukraine, while hundreds of thousands of others fled the region.