Mariupol Attacked

From the BBC:
"Ukraine crisis: Rebels 'begin offensive' on Mariupol"

Eastern Ukraine's main rebel leader says he has launched an offensive against the government-held port city of Mariupol. His comments came after a series of rocket attacks which Ukrainian media said had left 27 people dead and many others injured in the city. Grad rockets hit a market in a residential eastern area of Mariupol, the city's police chief said. Since April, more than 5,000 people have died in fighting in the east. The rebels have seized a large swathe of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. More than a million people have been displaced. Rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko said on Friday that he did not want truce talks with Kiev. A ceasefire was agreed in Minsk in September but never fully took hold. Many hoped that the lower level of hostilities it introduced would last, but the BBC's David Stern says that the fighting is beginning to approach what was seen last summer. Mariupol has a population of 500,000 and is in a highly strategic position, sitting between rebel-held eastern areas and Crimea, which was annexed by Russia last March. The city saw heavy fighting in August.

"Today an offensive was launched on Mariupol. This will be the best possible monument to all our dead," Alexander Zakharchenko was quoted as saying at a memorial ceremony in Donetsk. Unverified video footage on Saturday indicated that a number cars, houses and apartment buildings had been struck and were in flames. Our correspondent says the attack appeared to come from a multiple-rocket launcher, which fires a large number of missiles over a spread-out area. Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has called for an urgent session of the UN Security Council to discuss what he says is Russia's role in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, 5 Canal TV reports.  "Russia is not only breaching the Minsk agreements - Russia is violating the fundamental principles of international law and humanity.  "They are stopping at nothing. The rockets even hit a children's shop," it quoted him as telling a meeting in Kiev called to discuss the escalation in Mariupol.  The head of the OSCE security and monitoring group's mission to Ukraine, Ertugrul Apakan, described the shelling as a reckless, indiscriminate and disgraceful attack aimed at a heavily populated residential area. "I condemn this violent act in the strongest terms and call for a full investigation of the incident. "This dangerous situation can't continue. We need an immediate ceasefire."  In another development, the rebel mayor of Pervomaysk, west of Luhansk, has been killed, reports say. The body of Yevhen Ischchenko was found in a car. Three other men were apparently killed along with him. The local rebel leadership blamed Ukrainian agents, but other sources said it was the result of infighting. Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany have all issued calls for an end to the fighting.
Ukraine and its Western allies say Russian regular troops are fighting alongside the separatists, using Russian heavy artillery and tanks. Moscow insists that only Russian "volunteers" have joined the rebels.

^ It doesn't seem like a coincidence that a few days ago Russia reportedly sent 9,000 troops and weapons into eastern Ukraine and now there's a new offensive (both at the Donetsk Airport and now Mariupol.) Russia needs Mariupol to connect itself with it's annexed Crimea. It seems that they (the Russians) are double-talking. They constantly call for an end of the violence while at the same time keep supporting the ethnic Russian terrorists. The rest of the world needs to do  more than talk and make more sanctions to end the war in the Ukraine. Innocent men, women and children are being killed and wounded while we watch it on TV and do nothing. The Ukrainian people continue to do a great job of showing their patriotism, their desire for peace and freedom despite dealing with over-whelming odds against Russia. ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30967949