KIEV, Ukraine – Indiscriminate rocket fire slammed into homes, a market, schools and shops Saturday in Ukraine’s southeastern city of Mariupol, killing at least 30 people, authorities said. The Ukrainian president called the blitz a terrorist attack, and NATO and the U.S. demanded that Russia stop supporting the rebels.
Ukrainian officials rushed to defend the strategically important port on the Sea of Azov, beefing up military positions with more equipment and sending in more forces.
President Petro Poroshenko held an emergency meeting of his military officials and cut short a trip to Saudi Arabia to coordinate the government’s response.
“The time has come to name their sponsors. The help given to militants, weapons deliveries, equipment and the training of manpower – is this not aiding terrorism?” Poroshenko said in a recorded statement.
Russia insists it does not support the rebels, but Western military officials say the sheer number of heavy weapons under rebel control belies that claim.
An AP reporter saw convoys of pristine heavy weapons in rebel territory earlier this week.
The rocket attacks came a day after the rebels rejected a peace deal and announced they were going on a multi-prong offensive against the government in Kiev to vastly increase their territory. The rebel stance has upended European attempts to mediate an end to the fighting in eastern Ukraine, which the UN says has killed nearly 5,100 people since April.
Mariupol, a major city under government control, lies between mainland Russia and the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula. Heavy fighting in the region in the fall raised fears that Russian-backed separatist forces would try to capture the city to establish a land link between Crimea and Russia.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said three separate strikes from Grad multiple-rocket launchers hit Mariupol and its surrounding areas Saturday.
“The area that came under attack was massive,” Mariupol mayor Yuriy Khotlubei said. “The shelling was carried out by militants. This is very clearly Russian aggression that has caused terrible losses for the residents of the eastern part of our city.”
The Donetsk regional government loyal to Kiev said at least 30 people – including a 15-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy – died in the attacks. A Ukrainian military checkpoint near the city also was hit, and one serviceman was killed, the Defense Ministry said.
The RIA Novosti news agency cited Ukrainian rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko as saying an offensive had begun on Mariupol. He spoke as he laid a wreath Saturday where at least eight civilians died when a bus stop was shelled Thursday in Donetsk, the largest rebel-held city in eastern Ukraine.
Zakharchenko swiftly backtracked, however. He denied that his forces were responsible for Saturday’s carnage, saying it was caused by Ukrainian error. He also said the Ukrainian defenses positions around Mariupol would be destroyed but the city itself would not be stormed.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the rebels’ new offensive “has been aided and abetted by Russia’s irresponsible and dangerous decision to resupply them in recent weeks with hundreds of new pieces of advanced weaponry.”
He urged Russia to end its support for separatists, close its international border with Ukraine and withdraw all fighters, financial backing and weapons or face increased international and U.S. pressure.
Raf Casert in Brussels and Yuras Karmanau in Kiev, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
