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Russians bomb Mariupol theater where hundreds had taken refuge, officials say
Mariupol Metropolis Council, who shared a picture of the destroyed constructing, stated Russian forces had “purposefully and cynically destroyed the Drama Theater within the coronary heart of Mariupol.”
“The airplane dropped a bomb on a constructing the place lots of of peaceable Mariupol residents have been hiding,” it stated.
CNN has geolocated the picture and confirmed it’s of the theater within the southeastern port metropolis.
Movies of the aftermath confirmed a fireplace raging within the theater’s ruins. The variety of casualties is unknown, authorities stated.
“It’s nonetheless unimaginable to estimate the size of this horrific and inhumane act, as a result of town continues to shell residential areas,” the council wrote on Telegram. “It’s identified that after the bombing, the central a part of the Drama Theater was destroyed, and the doorway to the bomb shelter within the constructing was destroyed,” it added.
Petro Andruishchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, described the theater as the most important shelter “in quantity and dimension” within the metropolis’s heart. “In accordance with preliminary information, greater than a thousand individuals have been hiding there,” he stated. “The likelihood of getting there to dismantle the rubble is low on account of fixed shelling and bombing of town.”
The theater assault comes only a day after a Ukrainian official accused Russian troops of holding some 400 individuals captive at Mariupol’s Regional Intensive Care Hospital.
“It’s unimaginable to search out phrases that might describe the extent of cruelty and cynicism with which the Russian occupiers are destroying the civilian inhabitants of the Ukrainian metropolis by the ocean. Ladies, kids, and the aged stay within the enemy’s sights. These are fully unarmed peaceable individuals,” town council stated.
“We are going to by no means forgive and always remember,” it added.
Mariupol has been decreased to a battle zone, with town’s deputy mayor telling CNN on Tuesday that Russia has been bombarding town with missiles, saying that they counted 22 plane on Monday “which have been bombing our metropolis, and not less than 100 bombs.”
Residents who fled town have described situations there as “insufferable” and “simply hell.” On Tuesday, surprising drone footage and satellite tv for pc images displaying rising plumes of thick smoke and destroyed buildings emerged, underscoring the sheer devastation wrought by the Russian bombardment.
As many as 2,500 civilians have died in Mariupol, Ukrainian officers estimate, and lots of of hundreds of individuals are trapped within the metropolis — with officers warning those that stay are with out electrical energy, water and warmth.
CNN’s Ivana Kottasová, Jack Man and Paul P. Murphy contributed to this piece.