CNN — About 300 individuals are believed to have died in a Russian assault on a theater in Mariupol 9 days in the past, the town council has stated, citing eyewitness reviews.
The March 16 bombing of Mariupol’s Drama Theater, the place Ukrainian officers say as much as 1,300 had sought refuge, was among the many most brazen of Russia’s assaults on civilians since its invasion started in late February.
Painted on the bottom exterior the constructing — in large Russian letters — was the phrase “CHILDREN.” The message — massive sufficient to be considered from the sky — was scrawled close to a public sq.. Russia has denied its forces hit the theater, claiming as a substitute that the Azov battalion, the Ukrainian military’s foremost presence in Mariupol, blew it up.
Asserting the replace on its Telegram channel, the town council stated: “Sadly, we begin the day with dangerous information. There’s info, primarily based on eyewitnesses, that about 300 folks died within the Drama Theater in Mariupol because of a bombing by Russian plane.
“We nonetheless don’t wish to consider on this horror. We nonetheless wish to consider that everybody managed to flee. However the phrases of those that have been contained in the constructing on the time of this terrorist act say in any other case.”
Earlier this week, Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol’s mayor, put the variety of estimated survivors of the bombing at round 200.
“The occupier knew the place he was hitting. He knew what the results is perhaps, and anyway the bombs fell on this place,” the town council assertion Friday continued.
The theater was getting used as one of many foremost shelters in Mariupol, which has been underneath intense bombardment for the reason that early days of Russia’s assault on Ukraine.
Details about the complete extent of the assault has been sluggish to emerge as a result of nearly full breakdown of important companies within the metropolis, together with communication networks.
The coastal metropolis has been underneath siege for a number of weeks and has seen a number of the worst assaults within the conflict since Russia started its invasion of Ukraine in February. There’s nonetheless no phrase on doable casualties after a separate assault on an artwork faculty constructing that was additionally getting used as a shelter by as much as 400 folks.
Fundamental companies like fuel, electrical energy and water, are all out within the metropolis. Our bodies are being left on the street as a result of there’s both nobody left to gather them, or it is just too harmful to strive.
Over the past week, Russian forces have been deporting 1000’s of Mariupol residents towards their will to far-flung cities in Russia, in keeping with metropolis officers and witnesses. And on Monday, Moscow known as on Mariupol to give up — a notion Ukraine swiftly shot down.
Russia has denied focusing on civilians in Mariupol, blaming casualties on Ukrainian forces.
Andriushchenko advised CNN on Sunday that the battle for the town has made it unimaginable to retrieve and determine the useless, or deal with the wounded.
In a video message posted to Fb within the early hours of Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated the siege of Mariupol would go down in historical past as a conflict crime. “To do that to a peaceable metropolis … is a terror that shall be remembered for hundreds of years to come back,” he added.
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