Rockets kill 30 in Ukrainian city as rebels launch offensive

KIEV, Ukraine – Indiscriminate rocket fire slammed into a market, schools, homes 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.

The separatists’ top leader declared that an offensive against Mariupol had begun – then later toned down his threats as the scale of the civilian casualties became clear.

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 last 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 U.N. 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 Russia and Crimea.

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 was also 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 defense positions around Mariupol would be destroyed but the city itself would not be stormed.

But the Organization for Security and Cooperation’s monitoring mission said the attack on Mariupol was caused by Grad and Uragan rockets fired from areas under rebel control.

Rebel forces have positions six miles from Mariupol’s eastern outskirts. On Jan. 13, a bus near an army checkpoint north of Mariupol was hit by a shell, killing 13 people, an attack Ukraine also blamed on the separatists.

Yulia, a Mariupol citizen who asked that her name not be used for fear of retaliation, told the Associated Press by telephone Saturday that her stricken neighborhood had no power or heat in the middle of winter due to the attacks. Many residents had boarded up their windows, fearing shattered glass from further attacks, she said.

Reinforcements were being drafted into the city and the Mariupol-based Azov Battalion was being equipped with more heavy weapons, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a posting on Facebook. Security services also detained a spotter suspected of giving rebel fighters coordinates to launch rockets, he said.