Pro-Russian separatists in the city said on Friday Ukrainian forces had launched a "large-scale operation" to retake the town and one military helicopter had been shot down.
The Ukrainian interior minister, Arsen Avakov, confirmed that one pilot was killed and others wounded after separatists fired anti-aircraft missiles against Kyiv forces.
Avakov said on his Facebook page that Ukraine demands the rebels free their hostages, lay down their weapons, vacate the buildings they have seized and restore the municipal infrastructure.
Men standing near a burning barricade cheered at the news of the downed helicopter.
An armed masked man there vowed to continue to fight as he explained to Reuters how the helicopter was downed.
"Yes, it [a helicopter] was taken down. It was flying over the city after the paratroopers landed, and there was a fight there. After that, it was flying over here, and it was taken down. One rocket missed it, but it was hit by second one," he said.
Armed groups seeking union with Russia have seized a number of government buildings in towns in eastern Ukraine.
The attack comes hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that Ukraine withdraw all military personnel from the troubled region near the Russian border. Putin made the demand in a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who meets with President Barack Obama Friday in Washington.
On Thursday, Ukraine's interim President Oleksandr Turchynov signed a military conscription decree to deal with increasingly violent pro-Russian separatists who have seized buildings in about a dozen cities in Ukraine's Russian-speaking east.
The Ukrainian conscription decree targets 18-25-year-olds.
Earlier this week, the Ukrainian leader said his government was "helpless" to quell the growing pro-Russian separatist movement in two eastern regions.
Turchynov also conceded that his government had lost control of its own troops in southeastern Ukraine.
Protesters control a number of key buildings in Donetsk and have declared a May 11 referendum on whether to secede from Ukraine and join Russia.
A similar vote last month led to Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula.
Some information in this report was contributed by Reuters.
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