Russian-backed separatist authorities in eastern Ukraine said on Friday that a parked jeep had been blown up near a government building in the center of the city of Donetsk, Reuters reported.
A news outlet for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic urged residents to remain calm and not to move around the city if possible.
Nobody was reported to have been hurt in the explosion. The jeep was reportedly empty at the time.
Meanwhile, the separatists packed civilians onto buses out of both Donetsk and the other self-proclaimed region, Luhansk.
Most of the several million civilians in the two rebel-held areas of eastern Ukraine are Russian speakers, with many already granted citizenship by Moscow.
Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have mounted in recent weeks, after Russia amassed tens of thousands of troops on its border with Ukraine.
On Tuesday, however, Russia announced that some of the soldiers on the Ukrainian border had been recalled to their bases.
US President Joe Biden told reporters on Thursday that there are indications that Russia still intends to invade Ukraine, and announced that he does not intend to talk at this stage with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Biden added that an invasion may occur in the next several days.
The President's remarks came as Moscow expelled US Deputy Ambassador Bart Gorman, one of the top American diplomats at the US Embassy in Moscow.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)