This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: Needs more information in aftermath section (what was the eventual outcome of the fighting prior to the 2022 invasion?).(November 2023) |
January 2015 Mariupol rocket attack | |
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Part of War in Donbas | |
Location | Mariupol, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine |
Date | 24 January 2015; 9 years ago |
Attack type | Rocket attack |
Deaths | 31 [1] [2] |
Injured | 108 [3] [4] |
Perpetrators | Russia and its state-sponsored separatist forces
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A rocket attack on Mariupol was launched on 24 January 2015 by Russian and pro-Russian forces against the strategic maritime city of Mariupol, defended by Ukrainian government forces. Mariupol had come under attack multiple times in the previous year in the course of the War in Donbas, including in May–June 2014, when the city was under the control of Russian controlled forces; and in the September 2014 offensive.
On 24 January 2015, the Mariupol city council and regional police said the city was subjected to indiscriminate [7] rocket fire from the long-range Grad systems, killing at least 30 and injuring 128. [8] Ukrainian officials said the rebels and the Russian military were responsible. [9] According to Ukrainian intelligence, the attack was ordered by full-time Russian military commanders. [10] In 2018, the Bellingcat open-data investigative group revealed evidence that officers and equipment of Russian forces were directly involved in the attack. [11] [12] The rebels denied the attack, but their leader, Alexander Zakharchenko, announced an offensive against Mariupol in the early morning of this day. [13] [14]
According to a spot report by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, the Grad and Uragan rockets originated from the areas controlled by the pro-Russian forces. [15] [16] United Nations political chief Jeffrey D. Feltman said the attacks "knowingly targeted civilians," violated international humanitarian law, and could amount to war crimes. [17] The attack on Mariupol came 11 days after the deadly Volnovakha bus attack, when a rocket strike targeted a government checkpoint in the town of Volnovakha, hitting a passenger bus which resulted in the death of 12 civilians. Government officials attributed the incident to the separatists, but the rebels denied carrying out the attack. [18]
Mariupol and Battle of Debaltseve were high-stake arenas for pro-Russian and Ukrainian forces as both cities are vital transport hubs, described as a "gateway to a land-bridge" to Russian-annexed Crimea, and strategically crucial to the pro-Russian objective of opening up and linking areas under their control with a view to securing the entire Donetsk and Luhansk regions. [19]
On 22 January, pro-Russian extremists tried to attack Ukrainian positions on North-East of the city but failed. [20] The next day, Alexander Zaharchenko vowed to fight until he reached the border of the Donetsk Oblast. Separatists reportedly began a tank offensive, and also conducted attacks near the west of the city. The village of Talakivka was reportedly shelled hard by separatists, but Ukrainian forces were "holding on". Andriy Lysenko confirmed the shelling, but said the separatists were still incapable of shelling the city itself because Ukrainian forces had not let them get close enough. Dmitry Tymchuk, a military blogger, reported on Facebook that a convoy of DPR tanks and APCs were advancing towards the city. [21]
On 24 January, a major escalation took place after a rocket attack killed many people. [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] Mariupol city authorities said that a Grad rocket hit a residential area in the city, and killed 20 people. Video footage showed that cars, buildings, and apartment flats were in flames as a result of the attack. The attack appeared to come from a multiple rocket launcher. One resident told Agence France-Presse on the telephone that the rebels had managed to seize Mariupol Airport, although rebels made no comment about that alleged airport seizure. The airport is located some 20 kilometers behind the front line. The rebels denied any involvement in the attack. [27]
The rocket attacks came a day after the rebels rejected a peace deal and announced they were going on a multi-prong offensive against the government forces in Kyiv to vastly increase their territory. [7] Despite rebel denials, Donetsk rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko said that his forces had started an offensive on Mariupol, and rejected further talks with Kyiv; Zakharchenko said that "Today an offensive was launched on Mariupol. This will be the best possible monument to all our dead." Zakharchenko also stated that was is a provocation as DPR militants did not have the mentioned artillery systems and according to his sources the shelling was conducted from Staryi Krym. [28] The death count rose to 27 people, with several more injured. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council. [29]
A Ukrainian military checkpoint was also hit in the attack, killing one soldier. The city council urged citizens of Mariupol not to panic and said that "all units are fully battle-ready. Security measures in the city have been strengthened." [30] The General Secretary of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, condemned the attack, urging Russia to stop supporting the rebels. [31] President Petro Poroshenko considered the attack a "crime against humanity", and cancelled his trip to Saudi Arabia. He also vowed to deliver a "full victory" over the rebels.[ citation needed ]
According to OSCE observers "Grad" and "Uragan" rockets were used in this attack, originating from villages of Oktyabr (19 km NE) and Zaichenko (15 km NE), both controlled by separatist forces. [32] Later, pro-Russian extremists said they were not going to storm Mariupol and the offensive was only to strengthen positions around the city.[ citation needed ]
The next day, President Poroshenko vowed to calm the recent fighting in the strategic port city. Speaking at an emergency meeting at the Ukrainian Security council, he said that the Minsk Protocol signed on September 5 was the only solution to end the conflict. He said intercepted radio conversations proved that pro-Russian extremists were behind the attacks, but that the conversations hadn't yet been confirmed. Russia denied involvement in the attack, saying it was a result of Ukrainian forces shelling residential areas indiscriminately. [33] Petro Poroshenko said Ukrainian forces killed most of the rebels involved in the shelling, and put the rebel casualties at 110. Six Grad missile launchers were also destroyed according to him, and he said that the SBU brought the artillery gun spotter back to Kyiv for questioning. [34]
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) published a detailed timeline of the rocket attack. [35]
On 27 January, Azov Battalion members started training outside Mariupol should a rebel attack occur. Two of its members were killed in an attack on a checkpoint near the city the next day. [36] On 1 February, the villages of Talakovka and Pavlopil near Mariupol city were heavily shelled by pro-Russian extremists, according to Ukrainian forces. [37] On 3 February, separatists reportedly tried to attack Mariupol, but Ukrainian forces claimed they destroyed two enemy tanks and a group of insurgents near the city. [38]
On 4 February, the Ukrainian SBU reported that they had successfully completed a special operation to liquidate the detachment of Russian Army which had conducted this attack. [39]
On 10 February, the National Guard and the Azov Battalion launched an offensive on the town of Novoazovsk [40] and quickly managed to capture the towns of Shyrokyne, Pavlopil, Kominternovo [41] and Oktyabyr. Ukrainian forces managed to push the separatists back to Sakhanka, where the rebels were fighting back. [42] However, fighting continued in the area and by late April, Deutsche Welle reported that pro-Russian militants had set up positions in the centre of Shyrokyne. [43]
The attack was condemned in a public statement by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini. [44] The condemnation by the United Nations Security Council was vetoed by Russia on the ground that the condemnation sought to blame Alexander Zakharchenko's announcement of beginning of the attack on Mariupol as irresponsible and condemned separatist forces which, according to Russia, are "self-defense forces". [45] The attack and "provocative statements by self-defense leaders" were eventually condemned by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. [46] The attack was also condemned by NATO. [47]
From the end of February 2014, in the aftermath of the Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity, which resulted in the ousting of Russian-leaning Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, demonstrations by Russian-backed, pro-Russian, and anti-government groups took place in Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv and Odesa. The unrest, which was supported by the Russian military and intelligence services, belongs to the early stages of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
The war in Donbas, also known as the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the Donbas region of Ukraine. The war began in April 2014, when a commando unit headed by Russian citizen Igor Girkin seized Sloviansk in Donetsk oblast. The Ukrainian military launched an operation against them. The war continued until subsumed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
During the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity, the city of Mariupol, in Donetsk Oblast, saw skirmishes break out between Ukrainian government forces, local police, and separatist militants affiliated with the Donetsk People's Republic. Government forces withdrew from Mariupol on 9 May 2014 after heavy fighting left the city's police headquarters gutted by fire. These forces maintained checkpoints outside the city. Intervention by Metinvest steelworkers on 15 May 2014 led to the removal of barricades from the city centre, and the resumption of patrols by local police. Separatists continued to operate a headquarters in another part of the city until their positions were overrun in a government offensive on 13 June 2014.
The Battle in Shakhtarsk Raion began on 16 July 2014, when the Armed Forces of Ukraine attempted to cut off the Russian backed separatists’ supply lines from Russia. Fighting broke out around the towns of Marynivka, Dmytrivka, Stepanivka, Shakhtarsk, as well as the strategic hill of Savur-Mohyla. It later spread to the cities of Snizhne and Torez. While the battle was in progress, a civilian passenger airliner, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, was shot down near Hrabove on 17 July. Amidst a wide counter-offensive by the Russian proxy forces and their Russian backers across Donbas, government troops were forced out of Shakhtarsk Raion on 26 August.
Alexander Vladimirovich Zakharchenko was a Ukrainian separatist leader who was the head of state and Prime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic, a self-proclaimed state and Russian-backed rebel group which declared independence from Ukraine on 11 May 2014. Zakharchenko was appointed prime minister in August 2014 after his predecessor Alexander Borodai resigned, and went on to win the early November 2014 election for the position.
During the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War between the Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region of Ukraine that began in April 2014, many international organisations and states noted a deteriorating humanitarian situation in the conflict zone.
In late August and early September 2014, Russian and Russian-backed separatist troops supporting the Donetsk People's Republic advanced on the government-controlled port city of Mariupol in southern Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. This followed a wide offensive by Russian-allied forces, which led to their capture of Novoazovsk to the east. Fighting reached the outskirts of Mariupol on 6 September.
The Minsk agreements were a series of international agreements which sought to end the Donbas war fought between armed Russian separatist groups and Armed Forces of Ukraine, with Russian regular forces playing a central part. After a defeat at Ilovaisk at the end of August 2014, Russia forced Ukraine to sign the first Minsk Protocol, or the Minsk I. It was drafted by the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, consisting of Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), with mediation by the leaders of France and Germany in the so-called Normandy Format. After extensive talks in Minsk, Belarus, the agreement was signed on 5 September 2014 by representatives of the Trilateral Contact Group and, without recognition of their status, by the then-leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). This agreement followed multiple previous attempts to stop the fighting in the region and aimed to implement an immediate ceasefire.
The Second Battle of Donetsk Airport was an engagement between the Ukrainian military and Russian military and its proxy forces of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) during the War in Donbas. An earlier battle in May 2014 had left Donetsk International Airport in Ukrainian control. Despite a ceasefire agreement, the Minsk Protocol, in place since 5 September 2014, fighting broke out between the warring parties on 28 September 2014.
Mikhail Sergeyevich Tolstykh, better known by his nom de guerreGivi (Гиви), was a Ukrainian separatist officer wanted for war crimes. He was mainly known as the commander of the collaborationist Donetsk People's Republic's Somalia Battalion during the war in Donbas from 2014, until his assassination in early 2017.
The following lists events that happened during 2015 in Ukraine.
The Volnovakha bus attack was an attack on a highway checkpoint near the village of Buhas outside of the Volnovakha municipality in the Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on 13 January 2015. It resulted in the deaths of 12 passengers of an intercity bus and injuries to 18 others in the area. The attack was the largest single loss of life since the signing of the Minsk Protocol in September 2014, which attempted to halt the War in Donbas. The incident has been labeled an "act of terror" by both the Ukrainian authorities as well as the rebels.
The Battle of Debaltseve was a military confrontation in the city of Debaltseve, Donetsk Oblast, between the pro-Russian separatist forces of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), and the Ukrainian Armed Forces, starting in mid-January 2015 during the war in the Donbas region. The Russian forces composed mostly of "Wagner Group" soldiers recaptured Debaltseve, which had been under Ukrainian control since a counter-offensive by government forces in July 2014. The city lay in a "wedge" of Ukrainian-held territory bordered by the DPR on one side, and the LPR on the other, and is a vital road and railway junction.
The Shyrokyne standoff was a battle for the control of the strategic village of Shyrokyne, located approximately 11 km (6.8 mi) east of Mariupol city limits, between Ukrainian forces led by the Azov Regiment, and Russian-backed separatists, between February and July 2015. It was part of the larger war in Donbas. On 10 February 2015, the Azov Regiment launched a surprise offensive against pro-Russian separatists associated with the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) with the aim of pushing the separatist forces away from Mariupol city limits. The village is located just 10 km (6.2 mi) from the Ukrainian-controlled city of Mariupol, and was used as a launching point for separatist attacks on the city, which served as the administrative centre of Donetsk Oblast whilst DPR forces control Donetsk city. Fighting continued until 3 July 2015, when DPR forces unilaterally withdrew from Shyrokyne. Subsequently a cease-fire was declared in the area.
The Battle of Marinka was a short battle in the war in Donbas in and around Marinka, Donetsk Oblast which took place on 3 June 2015. Ukrainian forces fought the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic's (DPR) Republican Guard and Pyatnashka Brigade under Akhra Avidzba. The town of Marinka was briefly seized by the DPR forces before it was recaptured by the Ukrainians.
The Battle of Avdiivka of 2017 was fought in late January and early February near Avdiivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, during the war in Donbas. It saw some of the highest casualties during that phase of the conflict. According to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine the battle was of a level of fighting that had not been seen in Ukraine since 2014–15.
This is a timeline of the war in Donbas for the year 2014.
This is a timeline of the war in Donbas for the year 2015.
This is a timeline of the war in Donbas for the year 2016.
This is a timeline of the war in Donbas in early 2022. On 24 February 2022, the war in Donbas was subsumed into the eastern Ukraine campaign of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.