Dozens of civilians seeking refuge from the violence in eastern Ukraine were killed on Monday after a convoy had been hit with mortar fire, a military official said.

According to military spokesman Anatoly Proshin, a strong artillery strike had hit the convoy which had been travelling in the area of Novosvitlivka and Khryashchuvatye where most of the fighting between government forces and rebels had been going on at the time.

Like Us on Facebook

The strike had been so forceful that once it hit the convoy, the people had been burned alive inside the trucks; "they weren't able to get themselves out," Proshin told local media 112.ua.

Ukraine has accused pro-Russian separatists for deliberately firing at the trucks, which it claimed had borne white flags when it was hit near the city of Luhansk.

Andriy Lysenko, Ukraine's military spokesman, told media the militants had expected the convoy and had deliberately targeted it.

As of this report, the number of casualties has not yet been confirmed.

Lysenko said the government is still working to verify the fatalities but had told media that many children and women had been aboard the trucks when the "bloody crime" had happened.

In response, the deputy prime minister for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Andrei Purgin, denied the accusations, saying that his forces did not have enough military capacity to carry out that kind of attack.

He claimed the Ukrainian forces of constantly carrying offensive in the area using Russian-made Grad rockets.

Another separatist leader denied the attack on the convoy and challenged the Ukrainian government to produce evidence, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has met with senior advisors on Monday to address reports of the deployment of new Russian military equipment and 1,200 Russian fighters to aid the rebels in the region.

He said the Kiev forces must regroup to defend the territory and called for renewed offensive action against the rebels.

Pavlo Klimkin, Ukraine's Foreign Minister, said Russia must block the border and stop supplying arms to the rebels.

"If you have mercenaries and weaponry coming through the border from the Russian federation how can you reach a ceasefire," he added, referring to Russian calls of a ceasefire to allow its 280-truck convoy of humanitarian aid to enter the region.

TagsUkraine crisis, Petro Poroshenko, Pavlo Klimkin, Russia, humanitarian aid, pro-Russian separatists