You're reading: Shelling in Mariupol: 30 people killed, 102 wounded (UPDATE, VIDEO)

Russian-backed fighters shelled the Azov Sea port city of Mariupol in Donetsk Oblast, killing 30 people, most of them civilians, and wounding 102, according to the oblast's office of Internal Ministry. Also, separatists killed one Ukrainian soldier, according to Channel 5. Mariupol one of the key cities that remains under Ukrainian control.

City
Hall’s press service reports that three Russian Grad launchers fired
120 rockets into the city. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry says four of six launchers have already been destroyed.

“We’re
clarifying the information. Police is up on alarm. City police office’s
investigative group is working there,” said Vyacheslav Abroskin, head of
Interior Ministry office in Donetsk Oblast.

The Azov Battalion confirmed this on its Facebook page. Moreover, it reported that Ukrainian post
at the village of Vynogradne nearby was hit too, now it’s cut off the
electricity supplies. Local gas station was also damaged.

Russians
concentrated an army reserve, that includes additional artillery, near the
Ukrainian city of Novoazovsk, 50 kilometers to the east from Mariupol. Most of
the combatants involved in the reserve have been previously trained in Crimea
and Russia, according to Informational Resistance, a media project devoted to covering
the Donbas war.

Shelling in Mariupol © 8plus0 YouTube channel

“War
against Ukraine continues – terrorists shelling Mariupol,” Lithuania’s
Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius wrote on Twitter. “Time of talks Russia
used to supply terrorists. Ru(ssia) chose isolation & sanctions.”

Mariupol
is home to some 460,000 residents, as well as some major industrial assets.
City’s Azovstal and Ilyich Iron and Steel Works are in the list of the nation’s
biggest steel makers and a part of the billionaire Rinat Akmetov’s business
empire.

Akhmetov
is an influential figure in the Donbas who took pro-Ukrainian position early in
the war after the separatists tried to make him pay taxes to their budget.
Previously, he served in parliament with former President Viktor Yanukovych’s
Party of Regions.

The attack in Mariupol today killing at least 27 people.

Kyiv Post associate business editor Ivan Verstyuk can
be reached at [email protected].