Shelling
by pro-Russian rebels has killed at least 30 people, and injured 83, in
Mariupol - a single day after the separatists rejected a peace deal
signed last year.
'Indiscriminate
rocket fire' from long range GRAD Missiles struck a market, two
schools, homes and shops according to the regional police force.
Ukraine's
President Petro Poroshenko has cut his visit to Saudi Arabia short to
call an emergency meeting of his military officials, to coordinate the
government's response.
The
country's Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk has condemned the bombing as a
'deliberate attack on peaceful citizens' and laid the overall blame on
Russia's doorstep.
He said: 'The world needs to stop the Russian aggressor threatening Ukraine, Europe and global security.
'The problem is in the hero-town of Moscow, the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin.'
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A pro-Russian rebel holds a Ukrainian
flag found in a check-point captured by pro-Russian rebels, at the town
of Krasniy Partizan
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Senseless: Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk has condemned the bombing as a deliberate attack on peaceful citizens
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Incinerated: Cars, buildings and homes in Mariupol (pictured) were destroyed in the shelling attack
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Deceased: The two bodies pictured in this residential area in Mariupol are among 23 who lost their lives
Terrified: A 76-year-old pensioner who
witnessed the attacks said he could 'hear the earth tremble' from the
basement where he was hiding
A 76-year-old pensioner who witnessed the attacks, said they started in the early morning.
Leonid
Vasilenko, who lives in the eastern suburbs of Mariupol, said: 'The
walls were shaking, the window frames were shaking, paint started to
crumble off the house.
'I hid in the basement. What else can you do? I took the dog and the cat. In the basement you could hear the earth tremble.'
Despite
international calls for a ceasefire, the separatists' leader Alexander
Zakharchenko has vowed to push on with a new offensive and expel
Ukrainian troops from the eastern region entirely.
It
is thought today's attack was payback for the explosion which killed 13
people in the rebel-held eastern region of Donetsk on Thursday
He
said the insurgents would take no further part in peace talks,
adding: 'Today an offensive was launched on Mariupol. This will be the
best possible monument to all our dead.
'Attempts to talk about a cease-fire will no longer be undertaken by our side.'
At
a defence meeting in Kiev, Ukraine's defence minister Stepan Poltorak
said there had been a serious escalation in fighting on the front-lines
in the last 24 hours.
'Starting
from Luhansk region and ending in Mariupol, everywhere illegal armed
groups together with Russian units are going on the offensive,' he said
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People lay flowers and boy holds a
placard reading 'I'm not separatist, I'm Misha' during a mourning
ceremony for people who died in an explosion near of a bus stop on
Thursday
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A pro-Russian rebel patrols positions at a check-point in the town of Krasniy Partizan
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Shelling: Missiles struck the coastal city of Mariupol (pictured) and destroyed residential buildings
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Destruction: The shelling by pro-Russian rebels killed 20 people in the city of Mariupol, Ukraine (pictured)
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No compromise: The deadly attack comes just one day after separatists rejected a peace deal brokered to hinder the fighting
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'Strategically important': The coastal city of Mariupol lies on the Azov sea, between Russia and the annexed Crimean Peninsula
The rebels'
new multi-pronged offensive against the country's troops has seriously
hindered recent attempts to mediate an end to the fighting.
Government-controlled
Mariupol occupies a strategically important position on the Sea of
Azov, on a coastal route from the Russian border to Crimea, which was
annexed by Russia from Ukraine last March.
Fierce
fighting since the peace deal was signed in Minsk in September has
heightened fears the rebel forces would try to establish a land link
between Russia and Crimea. They currently have positions around six
miles from Mariupol's eastern outskirts.
The
agreement signed in the Belarusian capital tried to instigate a
cease-fire and the removal all of heavy weapons from certain areas in
eastern Ukraine.
But
it has been repeatedly violated by both sides - and heavy artillery and
rocket barrages have increased the civilian death toll in the last few
weeks.
On Thursday, mortar shells rained down on rebel-held areas of eastern Ukraine - killing 13 people at a bus stop.
The
separatists retaliated both swiftly and brutally by parading captured
Ukrainian troops through the city as enraged residents kicked and
shouted abuse at them.
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Surrounded: Rebel forces currently have positions six miles outside the city of Mariupol, which they bombed this morning
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Cut off: Emergency
workers inspected a damaged bridge on January 21, following an overnight
blast which severed the railway link between Mariupol and Ukraine's
west
And last weekend, battles intensified over Donetsk airport, which has been reduced to rubble after months of fighting.
Rebels eventually took control of the terminal and fighting has continued on its fringes since.
Last
week, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko claimed there were 9,000
Russian troops inside his country and called on Moscow to withdraw them -
blaming it for an armed aggression.
Moscow denies sending soldiers and weapons to east Ukraine, despite what the West deems 'irrefutable proof'.
Zakharchenko,
who claims rebel fighters were advancing in three directions in
Donetsk, said: 'We will hit them until we reach the border of Donetsk
region, and if I see the danger for Donetsk from any other city, I will
destroy this threat there.'
On
Wednesday, foreign ministers from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany
agreed to revive a division line between separatists and Ukraine's
troops, but fighting has continued unabated.
The
tentative peace deal forged in Berlin called on both Ukrainian troops
and Russian-backed rebels to pull their heavy arms nine miles on either
side of the division line - although there was no agreement reached on a
withdrawal of troops.
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Retaliation: The attack in Mariupol
comes just two days after a grenade explosion at a bus stop in the
rebel-held area of Donetsk killed 13 people
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Fury: The leader of the self-declared
Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko (left) said: 'Attempts
to talk about a cease-fire will no longer be undertaken by our side'
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Death: At least 13 people were killed,
and many were injured, in the bus attack in Donetsk - just hours after
peace talks in Berlin called for a cease fire
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Offensive: Zakharchenko has said
pro-Russian rebels (pictured) are advancing in three directions in
Donetsk, in a bid to claim the city entirely
But
rebel spokesman Eduard Basurin threw the agreement into doubt by saying
the insurgents 'will no longer consider the Minsk agreement in the form
it was signed'.
Basurin's
bold statement contradicted the official position of Russia, which has
repeatedly pledged respect for the Minsk agreement, which also requested
the withdrawal of foreign fighters and the monitoring of the
Russian-Ukrainian border by the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe.
The UN human rights agency has estimated that 5,100 people have been killed as a result of the conflict since April last year.
