Rockets Target Mariupol In Rebels' Eastern Ukraine Offensive

By RFE/RL

January 24, 2015

Officials in southeastern Ukraine say the government-held port city of Mariupol was being targeted by heavy barrages of Grad rockets on January 24 as part of a Russian-backed separatist offensive.

The Mariupol mayor's office said at least 10 people were killed by long-range rockets in a southeastern residential district near roads that have come under attack from Russian-backed separatists in recent days.

The volunteer Azov regiment that is defending Mariupol against the offensive said "many" were wounded by the rocket volleys.

Meanwhile, separatist fighters further to the north said on January 24 that they have captured villages outside of Donetsk and that government forces were retreating.

Heavy fighting was reported across half a dozen areas in eastern Ukraine on January 24, a day after separatist leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko announced a rebel offensive aimed at taking control of the entire Donetsk region.

Zakharchenko said separatists “won’t make an effort to talk about a cease-fire” in the nine-month-old conflict, which has killed more than 5,000 people.

Zakharchenko also reportedly said he would order his forces "to take no prisoners" in the future after an explosion hit a trolleybus in Donetsk on January 22, killing as many as 13 people in an attack that each side has blamed on the other.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on January 23 accused Zakharchenko and pro-Russian separatist fighters of "nothing but warmongering" and insisted that rebels and Ukrainian forces begin withdrawing their heavy weapons away from the frontline in the conflict.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has accused the separatists of attempting "a blatant land grab" in eastern Ukraine.

The separatist offensive comes after government forces on January 21 withdrew from fortified positions they had defended for months in and around the terminal buildings of the Donetsk airport.

It also comes after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on January 21 that Russia's regular army had deployed 2,000 troops into eastern Ukraine in recent days.

Poroshenko told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that the Russian military force in eastern Ukraine now numbers more than 9,000 soldiers with more than 500 tanks, armored personnel carriers, and heavy artillery pieces.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told the Reuters news agency on January 23 that the alliance has noted a "substantial increase in Russian heavy equipment" in Ukraine, including "tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, [and] advanced air defense systems."

Stoltenberg said he was prepared to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of a Munich security conference in early February.

Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed Kyiv for the escalation of fighting, claiming that government forces were conducting "large-scale military action" against the separatists.

Russia denies involvement in the conflict despite what Kyiv and NATO say is incontrovertible evidence it has sent troops into eastern Ukraine and provided the rebels with sophisticated weapons.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, AP, Interfax, TASS, and UNIAN