The bombardment of a Mariupol theater carried out on Wednesday by Russian troops, according to kyiv, caused at least one serious injury, but no deaths, the city council said on Friday in its first report on this tragedy.
“According to preliminary information, there are no deaths. But there is information about a very seriously injured person, ”the city council of this city in southeastern Ukraine said on Telegram.
“Debris clearance is continuing to the extent possible, and casualty information will be completed,” the council said.
At the time of the attack, “up to a thousand people”, mainly “women, children and the elderly” were hiding in this building, according to the same source.
To better understand the war in Ukraine
The Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday accused the Russian air force of having “knowingly” bombed this theater of Mariupol where hundreds of inhabitants were refugees, which Russia denied.
In a photo of the theater taken Monday and published Wednesday by the American satellite imagery company Maxar, we can clearly see from the sky the word “children” written on the ground in Russian in huge white letters, in front and behind the theater.
The town hall of Mariupol reported on Thursday that the situation was “critical” in the city, with “uninterrupted” Russian bombardments and “colossal” destruction. According to initial estimates, around 80% of the local housing stock was destroyed.
The Russian army announced on Friday that it would now fight in the city center of this strategic port on the Sea of Azov, besieged for days.
Two days after the bombing of the theatre, Volodymyr Zelensky announced that “more than 130 people could be saved”. “But hundreds of residents of Mariupol are still under the rubble,” added the Ukrainian president in a video.
The Russian army said on Friday that it had succeeded in entering the city and fighting there, alongside troops from the separatist “republic” of Donetsk.
Taking Mariupol would be an important turning point in the conflict and would allow Russia to ensure territorial continuity between its forces coming from annexed Crimea (south) and the troops from Donbass (east).