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At Least 10 Killed in Rocket Attack on Port City in Eastern Ukraine 27 Are Killed by Rockets in Ukraine
(about 4 hours later)
DONETSK, Ukraine — Rockets struck homes and a market in the Azov Sea port city of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least 10 people. It was the latest indication that after a relative lull last fall the war has flared up again in eastern Ukraine. DONETSK, Ukraine — A barrage of rockets struck homes and a market in the Azov Sea port city of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, killing 27 people and wounding 97 others, the Interior Ministry said.
It was the latest indication that after a relative lull last fall, the war has flared up again in eastern Ukraine, with lethal artillery strikes landing in both rebel- and Ukrainian-controlled regions.
A leader of the Russian-backed rebels, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, has said his forces are now on the offensive, and on Saturday he said that a military assault had begun against Mariupol, a strongly pro-Ukrainian seaside city with a prewar population of about 400,000 but now also bulging with thousands of refugees from Crimea and elsewhere in eastern Ukraine.
“We began our attack on Mariupol,” Mr. Zakharchenko said at a memorial for victims of a recent artillery bombardment of a bus stop in Donetsk. Both sides blame the other for that attack, and estimates of the number of dead are contested, ranging from 8 to 13.
Mr. Zakharchenko said that separatist forces had also begun an attack on a road and railroad hub north of Donetsk, and that this attack and the assault on Mariupol were “revenge” for deaths in the war in Donetsk.
In announcing the start of military operations against Mariupol, Mr. Zakharchenko did not claim responsibility for the rocket attack. Earlier Saturday, a spokesman for the Donetsk People’s Republic had denied that rebels were responsible for the strike, which hit near a Ukrainian barracks and also killed one soldier.
On a street, a car burned and spewed black smoke, and smoke also rose from at least one other site in the city, photographs posted on social networking sites showed. The newspaper Ukrainian Pravda reported that “fighters are shelling Mariupol and people are fleeing.”On a street, a car burned and spewed black smoke, and smoke also rose from at least one other site in the city, photographs posted on social networking sites showed. The newspaper Ukrainian Pravda reported that “fighters are shelling Mariupol and people are fleeing.”
The authorities often alter casualty figures in the hours after an attack so it was unclear on Saturday afternoon whether the strike would carry much significance in the broader context of the increased fighting in recent days. Armed with what appeared to be new tanks and other heavy weapons from Russia, rebels in recent days captured the ruins of the Donetsk airport and their leaders say openly they are now on the march.
A main rebel leader, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, said Friday that Russian-backed separatists intended to go on the “offensive” to expand the boundaries of the separatist territory and prevent Ukraine’s army from shelling populated areas, like the city of Donetsk.
Armed with what appeared to be new tanks and other heavy weapons from Russia, rebels in recent days captured the ruins of the Donetsk airport and the village of Krasny Partizan, and were on the march throughout the region. Russia denies supplying the rebels.
The police in Mariupol, which is under Ukrainian control but near the front line, and a battalion of pro-Ukrainian volunteer fighters based there said the city had been attacked with Grad rockets.
A police spokesman, Vyacheslav Abroskin, told Ukrainian media that at least 10 people had been killed in the artillery strike on the seaside city, a major steel industry center for Ukraine.
The volunteer militia helping to fortify the city of about 400,000 residents, the Azov Battalion, posted a statement apparently intended to tamp down panicky rumors that the strike signaled the beginning of a rebel ground assault on the city, the largest in the Donetsk region still under Ukrainian rule.
“Ukrainian forces fully control Sector M,” the statement said, referring to the section of the front around Mariupol. “The enemy is indeed gradually building up the intensity and power of artillery strikes, however they are not prepared for a full-scale assault of our part of the front.”