Zakharchenko: There will be no assault on Mariupol

The leader of the self -proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" Alexander Zakharchenko said that the militants did not conduct active hostilities on Saturday with Mariupol and are not going to storm the city. Zakharchenko’s statement quotes RIA Novosti.

“Until today, we have not been acting with Mariupol. We are protecting the forces. But now, after Kyiv decided to blame the erroneous fire of its“ Grad ”from Berdyansky on the living quarter on us, I gave the order to suppress the positions of Ukrainian troops, located east of Mariupol,” the head of the DPR emphasized that there are no people who are afraid of Mariupol, “there are no people there,“ there are no such people there. The Donetsk residents. "

The Minister of Defense of Ukraine Stepan Poltorak previously said that over the past day the militia forces went on the offensive throughout the line of fighting in the Donbass.

On Saturday morning, the eastern residential microdistrict on the outskirts of Mariupol was fired from Gradi. According to the latest data, the shelling led to the death of 30 people. About a hundred people are injured. The shelling occurred shortly after Zakharchenko’s statement that the militants intend to advance up to the administrative borders of the region and will no longer attempt to talk with the Ukrainian side about the ceasefire.

On the eve of the intention of militants to take Mariupol, the commander of the Kyiv-1 battalion, Evgeny Deadei, reported. "After the statement of Zakharchenko about the intention to take Mariupol, in the regions adjacent to the city, terrorists began the offensive with tanks. I do not exclude that the active attacks of the Separs in other sectors of the ATO - a distracting maneuver," he wrote on Facebook.