HUNDREDS of coalminers had to be rescued in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region yesterday after Kiev-regime shelling cut power overnight.

Three government soldiers and four anti-fascist Donbass militia were killed along with one civilian in the clashes in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

DPR authorities said all 207 miners trapped in the Zasyadko mine in the capital Donetsk after shells hit an electricity substation overnight were rescued by yesterday afternoon.

With lifts not working, the miners were trapped underground for several hours as local authorities located back-up generators.

On Monday the director of a giant coking plant in the regime-occupied town of Avdiivka said steps were being taken to stop production after power was cut off there too. DPR spokesman Eduard Basurin denied reports that his forces’ shelling had cut power lines and heating stations in the town, saying they had been damaged earlier.

Ukrainian Security and Defence Council chairman Oleksandr Turchynov said yesterday that DPR shelling around Avdiivka killed at least three regime troops and injured 24 more. The Donetsk News Agency reported four anti-­fascist militia died and seven were injured in the overnight fighting along with three civilians.

One civilian was killed in shelling yesterday morning in Donetsk, Mr Basurin told Russian news agencies.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Kiev yesterday of sending its far-right paramilitaries — now formally recruited into the armed forces — to break the ceasefire and seize territory from the DPR forces.

“Those units crossed the disengagement line with artillery fire support from the Ukrainian army,” he said. “The rebel militia was forced to fight back near the town of Avdiivka and take back the seized land.”

Mr Peskov said that although the so-called “volunteer battalion” is not under the command of the Kiev regime, the support from the Ukrainian regular forces proved that President Petro Poroshenko was trying to undermine the Minsk peace accords to distract from his government’s instability.

“It appears to be an attempt to draw attention away from the fragile situation by aggressive actions in the Donbass region,” Mr Peskov said.

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