UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Deadly rocket attacks on the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol this weekend that “knowingly targeted civilians” violated international humanitarian law and could amount to war crimes, the U.N. political chief said Monday.
Jeffrey Feltman told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe who examined the craters reported that the rockets originated from territory controlled by pro-Russian rebel separatists.
He said Saturday’s attack on Mariupol – a strategic city that could provide a land corridor into Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula which Russia annexed last March – destroyed buildings and hit a market killing “dozens of people, including women and children,” and injuring over 100. Other reports put the death toll at 30.
“We must all send an unequivocal message: The perpetrators must be held accountable and brought to justice,” Feltman said.
The rocket attack came a day after the rebels rejected a September cease-fire agreement and announced they were going on a multi-pronged offensive against the Ukrainian government in a bid to seize more territory. The rebel stance has upended European attempts to mediate an end to the fighting in eastern Ukraine that has cost at least 5,100 lives since April, according to U.N. estimates.