KIEV (AFP) - A convoy of international monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was shot at by "uniformed personnel" in east Ukraine, the organisation said Thursday.

The OSCE said that a uniformed man on the back of flat-bed cargo truck fired two shots in the direction of their vehicles as they were driving on Wednesday afternoon near the government-held town of Mariinka, some 15km west of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.

"The bullets struck about two metres from the second OSCE vehicle," the statement said.