Kiev: A five-year old girl was killed Friday by shelling in war-torn east Ukraine and her mother seriously wounded, Ukrainian officials said.

A military spokesman in Kiev and local officials said the child was killed when rebel mortar fire hit a village close to the frontline, north-west of the major rebel stronghold of Lugansk.

Pro-Kiev local governor Gennadiy Moskal said the mother had been taking her daughter to a local clinic when the incident occurred.

“A shell exploded nearby as a result of which the child sadly died on the spot and the mother was heavily injured,” he said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for the regional police force wrote on Facebook that the girl’s mother was currently in intensive care and that “medics were fighting to save her life.”

Elsewhere, one soldier was also killed and six others injured in fighting around the region over the past 24 hours, military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.

The casualties are the latest in seven months of fighting in eastern Ukraine that has claimed the lives of over 4,000 people, according to figures from the United Nations.

A nominal ceasefire was agreed between government forces and Kremlin-backed separatist fighters in September which has halted fighting along much of the frontline but not stopped artillery bombardments around strategic hotspots.

Authorities in the main rebel bastion of Donetsk, where government troops are battling to keep control of the ruined international airport, said that shelling overnight destroyed several houses but no civilians were injured.

Fears are mounting of a return to full-scale fighting in the east after Nato accused Russia of pouring fresh armoured columns and troops across the border to bolster separatist forces.

Moscow has angrily denied the allegations that it is involved in fighting in the east.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday jetted into Australia for the G20 summit where he is set to face a hostile reception from Western leaders over Moscow’s backing for the rebels.

The West’s relations with Moscow have grown increasingly tense since the downing of a Malaysia Airlines jet over territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in July, killing 298 passengers and crew including 38 Australian citizens and residents.