14 people were killed, including at least 10 government soldiers, in fighting overnight close to the crash site of downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a Ukrainian military spokesman said Friday.

"In total it is known that 14 people died but the bodies of four of them have not been identified and could be Ukrainian soldiers or terrorists," said Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky.

He added that "so far we are talking about 10 Ukrainian servicemen dead" in the clash, in the town of Shakhtarsk some 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the MH17 site. Earlier the Ukrainian military had said its troops were ambushed.