Russian bombs ‘destroy theatre with 1,200 civilians sheltering inside’ in devastated Mariupol, officials say
A RUSSIAN bomb destroyed a theatre today in the besieged city of Mariupol where 1,200 terrified civilians have been sheltering, according to officials. The Mariupol Drama Theatre had been used as a safe haven from Russia’s relentless shelling of the southern port city with meals being provided and people sleeping overnight. The continuous bombardment of […]
A RUSSIAN bomb destroyed a theatre today in the besieged city of Mariupol where 1,200 terrified civilians have been sheltering, according to officials.
The Mariupol Drama Theatre had been used as a safe haven from Russia’s relentless shelling of the southern port city with meals being provided and people sleeping overnight.
The continuous bombardment of Mariupol has forced around 20,000 Ukrainians to flee, while it’s estimated more than 2,300 citizens have been killed in the area.
The city’s deputy mayor, Serhiy Orlov, said between 1,000 and 1,200 people were inside the theatre when it was targeted by the Russians.
Rescuers are searching the wreckage for survivors but the number of casualties is not yet known.
Mariupol City Council said “Russia purposefully destroyed the drama theatre, where hundreds of people are hiding”.
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A statement said: “It is still impossible to estimate the scale of this horrific and inhumane act, because the [Russians] continue to shell residential areas.
“It is known that after the bombing, the central part of the theatre was destroyed and the entrance to the bomb shelter in the building was destroyed.
“Information about the victims is being clarified.”
Pictures showed a pile of rubble with twisted metal and smoke rising from the ruins while videos showed blood soaked victims being rushed to hospital – and numerous bodies in the basement of the theatre.
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Another video showed smouldering vehicles and debris strewn across what appeared to be the theatre’s car park.
Footage posted online just five days ago showed the theatre packed with people sheltering from the onslaught of Russian shelling.
Local MP Sergiy Taruta said the theatre had become a shelter “in which the residents of the blockaded Mariupol sought respite from the continuous shelling”.
He feared many had been buried under the rubble and posted online: “There were a huge number of people hiding from the shelling. There is some fierce fighting going on right now.
“Many Mariupol citizens were hiding in the theatre, with small children.”
Russia has reportedly denied it carried out the airstrike on the theatre.
Mariupol has been under fire for more than two weeks and entire neighbourhoods have been turned into wasteland.
In a separate incident today, a convoy of civilians evacuated from the city was hit by Russian rockets, according to Ukraine’s armed forces.
In a Facebook post, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said the civilians were fleeing when they were fired on by a BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system.
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The Zaporizhzhya local government said at least five people were injured – including a child who has been left in a critical condition.
Russian soldiers have also taken hundreds of hospital staff and patients hostage at Mariupol Regional Intensive Care Hospital.
The troops are said to be forcing nearby residents out of their homes and into the hospital after days of relentless Russian shelling.
Mr Orlov said about 400 people are being stopped from leaving the city centre hospital.
He told the BBC: “We received information that the Russian army captured our biggest hospital… and they’re using our patients and doctors like hostages.
“We can confirm this information and also the governor of Donetsk region has confirmed this information. We received information that there are 400 people there.”
The Russian soldiers have reportedly threatened to shoot anyone who tries to escape.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Mariupol was quickly running out of food and residents are struggling for water, heating and medicine.
And Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, said there were serious problems trying to deliver humanitarian aid to the desperate city of 430,000 people.
It comes as…
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She said a convoy filled with supplies was stuck at nearby Berdyansk.
In a glimmer of hope, around 20,000 people have managed to flee the city by driving along a humanitarian corridor agreed with Russian forces.
About 4,000 cars fled northwest to Zaporizhzhia in what is believed to be the biggest evacuation yet from Mariupol, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a senior aide to Zelensky.
But parents have been forced to leave their tiny premature babies behind at a hospital in the city as it’s reported 103 children have been killed by merciless Russian troops.
Amid frantic scenes as families try to escape, a devastating picture from the city’s hospital number three shows three premature babies in a bed – left behind by their desperate parents.
It comes after a pregnant woman and her unborn baby died after a Russian air strike destroyed a maternity hospital in Mariupol.
A harrowing picture showed the mother being stretchered from the hospital and she later screamed “kill me, kill me” when she found her baby was lost – then died herself.
CIVILIANS MASSACRED
Elsewhere, at least 10 people have died after Russian troops reportedly opened fire on Ukrainian civilians queueing for bread in the northern city of Chernihiv.
Horror footage shows bodies lying on the ground after Russian soldiers allegedly shot them outside a bakery in the city.
It comes as Russian soldiers were filmed apparently shooting dead a Ukrainian civilian in cold blood as he held his hands up and surrendered.
The distressing clip shows the man getting out of his car and surrendering before dropping to the ground almost immediately.
German broadcaster ZDF, which obtained the drone footage, said the incident appears to have taken place on the afternoon of March 7, on the E40 expressway outside Kyiv.
The video shows a Russian tank parked near a petrol station while a man in a silver vehicle turns his car around and stops.
He can be seen getting out of the car with his hands up – but a few moments later he drops to the ground after being shot.
Russian forces are continuing to pound Ukrainian cities and edge closer to Kyiv in a relentless bombardment that keeps deepening the humanitarian crisis.
‘DIFFICULT AND DANGEROUS’
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko has warned of a “difficult and dangerous moment” for the city as Russian forces step up strikes on residential buildings.
The strikes have disrupted the relative calm after an initial advance by Putin’s forces was stopped in the early days of the war.
Explosions around the city caused massive structural damage – with shockwaves from a blast tearing through the entrance of a downtown subway station that residents have been using as a bomb shelter.
Kyiv has now imposed a 35-hour curfew after the intense shelling.
Meanwhile, Zelensky said Ukraine has captured almost 1,000 Russian prisoners of war since the invasion began on February 24.
During a call with International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan, the Ukrainian leader said: “We have already almost 1,000 prisoners and their video testimonies.”
But it comes as Russia claims it is close to a peace deal that will see Ukraine become a neutral country, its foreign minister has claimed.
The apparent willingness of Vladimir Putin to find a way out of the war he started comes as his forces have been mauled by heroic Ukrainian defenders and could even buckle in ten days.
The Russian tyrant expected a quick victory when he ordered the invasion on February 23 but Kyiv’s forces say they have killed more than 13,500 of the invaders.
Moscow has seen generals killed, pilots blasted out of the sky, tanks ambushed and videos of sobbing soldiers after surrendering to the Ukrainians.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said talks with Ukraine are now focused on a neutral status for the war-torn country.
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“A neutral status is being seriously discussed in connection with security guarantees,” Lavrov told Russian television.
“There are concrete formulations that in my view are close to being agreed.”
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