New capital of war

What is known and what is not known about the situation in Mariupol

The city of Mariupol, a hundred kilometers from Donetsk, became the new center of military confrontation between the DPR and the army of Ukraine. On the morning of January 24, one of the microdistricts of Mariupol was fired by Grades, and in the afternoon the head of the DPR announced an attack on the city. “Medusa” on the basis of Ukrainian and Russian sources tried to understand what is happening in the Donetsk region.

What is known

- Firing . On the morning of January 24, reports about the shelling of Vostochny microdistrict in Mariupol began to appear in the Ukrainian media in the words of eyewitnesses. Then official information was received about dozens of victims. All day, the number of victims grew - according to the latest data , 30 people were killed, and about a hundred were injured. Shells got to the market, in the store, in residential areas of the microdistrict. There were no military during shelling at Vostochny.

- The UN Security Council . The Government of Ukraine urgently called the operational headquarters in Kiev, which asked for a meeting of the UN Security Council due to what happened. In addition, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko can discuss Mariupol’s shelling with US Vice President Joseph Bayden in the very near future, as he is with Bayden in Saudi Arabia at the funeral of King Abdullah.

- The offensive of the separatists. The head of the DPR, Alexander Zakharchenko, announced an attack on Mariupol. The movements of the separatists were also noticed by the Ukrainian side, which also began to tighten the forces to the city. The revitalization occurred in other places of the front - the “deterioration of the situation” of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine recorded from Lugansk to Mariupol, that is, at a distance of more than 200 kilometers.

What is unknown

Who shot and why? As always in such a situation, the parties accuse each other of shelling of Mariupol. The separatists reported that they have no installations that could fire at the Eastern one next to Mariupol; The army of Ukraine, in turn, announced that she had already found a place where the fire was fired from, and even destroyed four of the six “grades”, which allegedly attacked Mariupol. The OSCE conducted her own investigation and sided with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The motives of the shelling are incomprehensible. The separatists accuse the Ukrainian troops of “provocations”, the prosecutor's office of the Donetsk region called the incident “terrorist act”.

What are the forces of the sides of Mariupol? There is no information about this. It is not known what forces the separatists come and what reserves the Ukrainian army has. According to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Stepan Polomak, additional troops are pulled by Mariupol.

What happens to civilians in the city? Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced the evacuation of the inhabitants of the eastern regions of Mariupol in the western, but how this evacuation takes place, who accepts refugees and, most importantly, whether the residents of the city are ready to leave their apartments are unknown. According to Yatsenyuk, refugees can be located in kindergartens and schools. A resident of the western part of Mariupol, with whom Medusa managed to communicate, noted that now many residents of East Mariupol have come to visit their friends away from hostilities. At the same time, they just in case took the most necessary from the houses.

What will happen next? Alexander Zakharchenko repeated on January 24 that he did not see the point in peace negotiations and that he wants to move the Ukrainian army to the borders of the Donetsk region. At the same time, he stated that Mariupol was not going to storm. The Ukrainian army is defending; Judging by the intention to call the UN Security Council, Kyiv hopes that the world community will force the separatists to stop the offensive.

See the gallery: target - “east” Mariupol after shelling