Both the theater and the swimming pool are said to have been used as a refuge for civilians in the center of Mariupol when it was bombed on Wednesday. Ukrainians tried to warn that there were children inside the theater.
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A satellite image from the company Maxar, published via Reuters on Wednesday, shows that someone has written the word “child” on the ground in large white letters to warn that children sought refuge inside the theater.
VG has verified the image, location and meaning of the words on the ground. The text is written in Russian, and the word “children” is in the plural on both sides of the building.
The photo was taken on March 14, Reuters reports.
Deputy Mayor Serhiy Orlov estimates that between 1,000 and 1,200 people had sought refuge inside the theater when it was bombed, he says to BBC.
The city council in Mariupol writes in Telegram on Wednesday afternoon that the theater and the entrance to the bomb room have been destroyed.
Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko writes in the Telegram that several hundred Mariupol residents hid in the theater.
– What happened to them is unknown, since the entrance to the bomb room is blocked, he writes.
Therefore, it is currently impossible to determine the number of victims, according to the governor.
The Russian Defense Ministry, for its part, denies that airstrikes were carried out in Mariupol during the day, and claims that it is the Ukrainian Azov battalion that is behind the attack, according to the Russian government-controlled news agency TASS.
1 of 3Foto: Donetsk Regional Military Administration
Parliament: Children and women captured
Kyrylenko claims that an indoor swimming pool in Mariupol, Neptune, was also bombed in the airstrikes against the city on Wednesday. According to the governor, pregnant women and children had sought refuge in the building.
– Similarly, there were only civilians in Neptune. Now pregnant women and women with children are under the ruins. This is pure terrorism! he writes.
The Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, wrote on Telegram on Wednesday night that children and pregnant women were trapped in the ruins.
– The protection continues, so it is impossible to disassemble the block. The enemy deliberately shoots at civilians and civilian properties, where it is mainly women and children who are hiding. The number of victims is unknown, they write.
– The number of victims can be enormous
– This is terror, writes adviser in the Interior Ministry, Anton Herashchenko, in a message to VG.
He follows up with the following:
– The occupiers dropped a very powerful bomb on the theater in Mariupol. There were defenseless people hiding in this building. The number of victims can be huge, he writes.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt has expressed her support for Ukraine on Twitter.
– Cruel reports of the bombing of a theater in Mariupol tonight. The perpetrators must be held accountable. Russia is responsible for the bloodshed through its unprovoked and illegal aggression, writes Huitfeldt.
The President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda, also expresses his support for Ukraine on Twitter.
Russia’s terrorist attack on innocent people in Mariupol’s theater is a war crime. Those on the inside were civilians hiding from artillery attacks. We can not allow Russia to continue with this massacre.
Mariupol has been besieged for a long time and Russian forces have carried out heavy artillery and bomb attacks on the city.
On Tuesday, the governor claimed that Russian forces had entered a hospital in Mariupol and taken patients and staff hostage.
Tried to evacuate the city
Between 300,000 and 400,000 are trapped in the city without water, electricity and gas.
There have been several attempts to evacuate civilians from the city and create humanitarian corridors to the city to evacuate, and to send food and emergency aid.
On Tuesday, around 2,000 cars managed to leave Mariupol, southeastern Ukraine, the city council said on Tuesday afternoon.
Before the war, about 450,000 people lived in the city. Several thousand managed to escape from the city in the first days of the war.
Then Mariupol was surrounded and besieged, and since then the city has been subjected to many attacks.
The attacks on the besieged city have been described as one humanitarian disaster by, among others, MSF.
Several of the city’s residents are said to have been buried in mass graves.
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