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A Swiss Red Cross worker was killed by a shell that landed near the international organisation’s office in Ukraine’s separatist-held city of Donetsk on Thursday.
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A Reuters witness saw the body of a middle-aged man lying at the entrance to the building.
“We’re deeply distressed by this loss,” said Ewan Watson, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
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The ICRC offices in Donetsk are in a three-storey building less than a kilometre from the state security headquarters, which separatist rebels have occupied since April along with other strategic points in the city.
The incident will bring fresh strain to bear on a fragile ceasefire called by the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, and which came into force on 5 September.
Poroshenko said last week that the ceasefire was holding, but it has come increasingly frayed in the past few days with increased fighting around Donetsk airport, from where separatists are trying to dislodge government forces.
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Pavel Klimkin, blamed the separatists for Thursday’s attack.
“I have only one question. Do the terrorists have any idea of what humanity is all about when they shell the Donetsk office of the ICRC, whose only aim is to help people?” he said.
Seven Ukrainian soldiers were killed on Monday by a single tank tank shell that hit their armoured personnel transporter. On Wednesday at least 10 people were killed when shelling hit a school playground in Donetsk and a minibus in a street nearby.
