bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Reuters

Ukrainian forces pounded pro-Russia rebels to the east of the port of Mariupol on Friday, hours before envoys from Ukraine and Russia were expected to announce a ceasefire as the starting point for a wider peace plan.
Ukraine says its forces are trying to repel a big offensive by the rebels to take Mariupol, a port city of around 500,000 on the Sea of Azov crucial for its steel exports. It stands about halfway between Russia and the Russian-annexed Crimea region.

“Our artillery has come and is being deployed against the [pro-Russia] rebels,” the mayor of Mariupol, Yuri Khotlubey, told Ukraine’s 112 television channel.
As he spoke, witnesses in Mariupol heard artillery shelling a few kilometres to the east of the centre.
A commander of a Ukrainian volunteer militia based in Mariupol said that his battalion had been under sustained rebel fire all night into Friday.
“We are still keeping the rebels at bay. They are confronting us with tanks and artillery,” he said.
Pro-Russia separatists told the Interfax news agency that about 50 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed or wounded in fighting near Mariupol on Thursday and three had been taken captive. The report could not be independently confirmed.
Mariupol became a major focus of concern for Ukraine after the rebels broke away from their main strongholds further north in late August – backed, Kiev says, by Russian regular forces – and took the nearby coastal town of Novoazovsk.
Representatives from Ukraine, the pro-Russian rebel leadership, Russia and Europe’s OSCE security watchdog are expected to meet in the Belarussian capital Minsk later on Friday to agree a ceasefire to pave the way for implementation of a “stage-by-stage peace plan” for the country.

However, few in eastern Ukraine, wearied by nearly six months of conflict, have much hope that a ceasefire can hold.
“I would not be a decent human being if I say I am not for the ceasefire, but all these bandits and mercenaries and [Russian] invaders must be kicked out of Ukraine never to return,” said Anatoly, a pensioner in his 70s, in Mariupol.
A Ukrainian soldier who gave his name as Mykola said Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko – who was attending the second day of a Nato summit in Wales on Friday – would “betray the country” if he backed a peace plan at this time.
“If he goes for a peace plan, then all these dead and wounded and exiled and all the homes burned and jobs lost and money lost, it was all for nothing,” he said.
“We must defeat them and then talk peace.”


Ukrainian forces pound pro-Russian rebels near Mariupol ahead of expected truce

A volunteer of the Ukrainian paramilitary Azov battalion waits on an armoured vehicle, as pro-Russia separatists fire heavy artillery, on the outskirts of the key southeastern port city of Mariupol, on Friday. Photo: AFP

Strong explosions rocked by pro-Russian separatists in Mariupol on September 4. Photo: AFP

Hopes for Ukraine ceasefire grow as Petro Poroshenko meets Nato leaders

(From left) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron hold a meeting during the 2014 NATO Summit in Newport, South Wales. Photo: EPA

A woman holds balloons in the colours of Ukraine's flag during a pro-Ukrainian rally in the southern coastal town of Mariupol. Photo: Reuters

Francois Hollande, Petro Poroshenko, Barack Obama, David Cameron, Angela Merkel and Matteo Renzi meet. Photo: AFP

News

World

Ukrainian forces shelled pro-Russia rebels to the east of the port of Mariupol on Friday, hours before envoys were expected to announce a ceasefire as the starting point for a wider peace plan.
