At least 15 people died yesterday when rockets hit a market in a vital port linking Ukrainian rebel-held territory with Russian-occupied Crimea after the pro-Moscow insurgents vowed to grab more land.
The Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior said that 46 people were wounded in the city of Mariupol when Grad rockets hit a large residential district facing roads that have come under attack from separatist militias in recent days.
The local mayor’s office said that several buildings went up in flames and cars were torched in the morning assault.
Photo: Reuters
“Right now there are problems with the cell phone network, so it is impossible to call relatives who live in that part of town,” Mariupol resident Eduard told reporters by telephone.
“Obviously, everyone in the city is very scared,” he said. “The rebels have already seized the airport and now they are starting to destroy Mariupol itself.”
Photographs of the attack published on a local news Web site showed a towering cloud of gray smoke billowing over homes and a row of high-rise apartment buildings.
The southeastern Sea of Azov city of nearly 500,000 sits on a highway connecting guerrilla-held regions to the east and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in March last year in a move condemned by the international community.
A rebel assault on the port in August saw Kiev repel the attack at a heavy cost that prompted Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to agree to a Sept. 5 truce.
That deal was followed by still more clashes that killed at least 1,500 people and was ultimately rejected by the rebels on Friday.
The separatist leader of Donetsk said on Friday that he was ripping up the September agreement and launching an all-out offensive aimed at seizing lands currently under the control of the pro-Western authorities.
“Our side will no longer push for any more truce talks,” Alexander Zakharchenko said.
“We are going to advance to the very border of Donetsk Province,” he added in reference to areas of the heavily Russified region still under Kiev’s control.
There was no immediate comment on the battle from top rebel commanders.
An unnamed separatist “defense ministry” source denied any involvement to a pro-Russian Web site.
“The militias did not open fire on Mariupol — especially its residential districts,” the unidentified militant told the Donetsk News Agency.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday rejected the charges and blamed Kiev for the latest surge in deaths.
“Artillery is being used, rocket launchers and aviation, and it is used indiscriminantly and over densely populated areas,” Putin said.
International monitors said that in recent weeks the average daily death toll was nearly 30 — a level last seen at the very height of a nine-month war that has claimed more than 5,000 lives.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique