Hundreds of people may still be trapped in an air raid shelter under the theater in Mariupol, which was destroyed by Russian airstrikes on Wednesday. During the attack, according to the deputy mayor of the heavily besieged Ukrainian port, about 1,000 to 1,200 people sheltered in the theater from the continuous Russian shelling. Mainly women and children.
On Friday, the city council wrote on Telegram that 130 people were taken alive from the building and that the rescue operation was still underway. Since then, no new reports of more rescued people or recovered victims have been released.
New satellite images from Maxar show the devastation caused by Russian airstrikes. The photos show that more than half of the roof has collapsed. There is rubble on both sides of the building and part of the interior appears to have been burned.
Bomb shelter entrance may be blocked
It is unclear whether the people who were rescued were taken from the bomb shelter or if they were elsewhere in the building at the time of the attack. There are also reports that the entrance to the bomb shelter is blocked by the rubble and that it is almost impossible to start a rescue because of the fierce street fighting between Russian soldiers and Ukrainian troops around the theater.
Apart from the updates from the city council, hardly any information is released about the situation around the theatre. There is no electricity or internet in the besieged city, and there are hardly any journalists in Mariupol.
The Russian defense ministry has denied carrying out the airstrike, state news agency RIA reported on Wednesday. In response, the ministry pointed to the Azov battalion, the far-right militia that recaptured the city from pro-Russian rebels years ago. The ministry spoke of a “bloody provocation” on the part of the anti-Russian militia. There is no evidence for that claim.
The militia captured these images on March 10, showing the building’s air-raid shelter being used:
–
