Terror intensifies in Mariupol, a strategic port city in southeastern Ukraine, overlooking the Sea of Azov. In the city center, the Donetsk Regional Drama Theater was the target of bombardments on Wednesday March 16. Ukraine has accused Russia of being responsible, claiming that “more than a thousand” civilians had taken refuge there.
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A week earlier, on March 9, the bombing of a maternity ward in this same city of 430,000 inhabitants had aroused the turmoil of the international community. According to the Ukrainian authorities, pMore than 2,000 people have been killed in Mariupol since the start of the war, although a count of the victims is difficult to establish.
An explosion “destroyed” the building
“A bomb” released “on the drama theater in the city center” at “destroy” building, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday, March 16. Earlier in the day,Ukrainian officials posted a photo appearing to show this three-story building in flames, devastated by an explosion. Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, posted striking before and after photos of the explosion.
Another horrible war crime in Mariupol. Massive Russian attack on the Drama Theater where hundreds of innocent civilians were hiding. The building is now fully ruined. Russians could not have known this was a civilian shelter. Save Mariupol! Stop Russian war criminals! pic.twitter.com/bIQLxe7mli
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 16, 2022
These images show the central part of the theater completely destroyed, with thick white smoke billowing from it. This building with a red roof, built after the Second World War, surrounded by green spaces and located on a large square, is not adjoining any other building, which raises questions about the possibility of a shooting error.
Civilians had taken refuge there
“The number of dead is not yet known”, said the Ukrainian president. But the town hall of Mariupol affirmed, in the night of Wednesday to Thursday, on its Telegram account, that “more than a thousand” people were in the theater when it was hit. “We will never forgive this”added the municipality on the messaging system.
The NGO Human Rights Watch said it needed more information to assess the situation in Mariupol. “We cannot rule out the possibility of a Ukrainian military target in the area of the theater, but we do know that the theater housed at least 500 civilians”explained researcher Belkis Wille, referring to “serious concerns” about the target. Two people interviewed by the NGO, a doctor and a logistics volunteer who fled the city, confirmed that around 500 to 800 civilians were entrenched in the theater.
A video uploaded on March 10 by the Azov Regiment, a Ukrainian far-right military group, and spotted by the New York Times, shows the interior of the theater a week before the events. In these images viewed by franceinfo, women, children, babies and men appear hidden behind blocked windows, in the dark. The group indicated during the publication that the locker room was “a place of food distribution” and “the actors themselves” were coming “helping refugees in their hometown”.
The entrance to the shelter now seems blocked by the debris caused by the explosion. Victim information is “being verified”said the town hall of Mariupol.
The word “children” was written on the sidewalk
A photo of the theatre, consulted and analyzed by AFP, shows that the word “children” was written on the pavement, in huge white letters and in Russian, on the front and the back of the building. This is also shown in a satellite image shared by the American space technology company Maxar Technologies. According to the company, he was caught on March 14. On the basis of this image, the association Humans Right Watch affirms that “the Russian word for ‘children’ appears clearly on the floor, written twice in huge Cyrillic characters”.
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Another photo, collected by the NGO from a local doctor and published on Twittershows the same inscriptions visibly made with adhesive tape intended to warn that it was a shelter for civilian populations.
#Mariupol‘s theater was housing 500+ civilians on March 16, and residents put tape outside in large letters to spell “children” to signal to the Russians this was a shelter. On March 17 Russia destroyed the theater, see @hrw‘s investigation into attack https://t.co/ueKsYuiBu7 pic.twitter.com/9fSTPJ2Rni
— Belkis Wille (@belkiswille) March 17, 2022
Russia denies being behind the attack
“The Russian Air Force knowingly dropped a bomb”said Volodymyr Zelensky. “The world must finally admit that Russia has become a terrorist state”he asserted. For the mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko, this attack is a “terrible tragedy”. “The only word to describe what happened today is genocide, the genocide of our nation, of our Ukrainian people”he added.
The Russian Ministry of Defense denied a bombardment of the city by its troops and claimed that the building had been destroyed by the Ukrainian nationalist Azov battalion. The Russian Embassy in Washington also claimed that it was a disinformation campaign.
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Moscow has already blamed this military unit for the bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol on March 9, which killed at least three people.
Joe Biden condemned this strike
In Washington, responding to a journalist after the announcement of the event, US President Joe Biden accused his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of being “a war criminal”. Words judged “unacceptable and unforgivable” by the Kremlin.
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“It’s absolute horrorfor his part declared the President of the European Council, the Belgian Charles Michel. Indeed, I think that international justice will have to shed light, because impunity cannot be an option.”
Sunday, thehe International Committee of the Red Cross had already sounded the alarm, warning against “a worst-case scenario” in the besieged city and saying to themselves “ready to act as a neutral intermediary to facilitate dialogue between parties on these humanitarian issues”. “Time is running out for the hundreds of thousands of people trapped in the fighting. History will judge with horror what is happening in Mariupol”insists the statement of the NGO. “Human suffering is immense”he underlines, specifying that the population is forced to take refuge in underground shelters without heating and must risk their lives during brief outings to seek food and water.