Ukraine jets strike separatists near Russian border

(Vatican Radio) Ukrainian war planes bombarded separatists along a broad front on Saturday, inflicting huge losses, according to Kiev.

In exchanges marking a sharp escalation in the three-month conflict, jets struck at the "epicentre" of the battle against rebels near the border with Russia, according to a military spokesman.

Saturday’s bombardment comes after artillery fire killed at least four people in an overnight attack on a residential area in eastern Ukraine, spurring more people to flee the besieged city of Donetsk and its suburbs.

The overnight attack in Donetsk came hours after Ukraine's president, Petro Poroshenko, vowed vengeance for the deaths of 19 troops in an insurgent rocket attack near the Russian border.

Fighting between the rebels and government troops has left more than 400 dead and tens of thousands have fled their homes, in many cases crossing the border into Russia.