Maxar via Getty Images. Aerial view of Mariupol, March 14, 2022.
WAR IN UKRAINE – The city of Mariupol, besieged for several days, continues to attack Russian troops. On Wednesday, March 16, as a result of an airstrike by Russian aircraft in this city in southeastern Ukraine, a theater in which there were “hundreds of civilians” were badly damaged, the mayor’s office said.
“The plane dropped a bomb on a building where hundreds of civilians were hiding. It is impossible to establish a balance right away, because the shelling of residential areas continues, ”the mayor’s office wrote on Telegram, posting a photo of the theater, the central part of which was destroyed. On Twitter, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba condemned a “terrible war crime”.
Another terrible war crime in Mariupol. Massive Russian attack on the Drama Theatre, where hundreds of innocent civilians were hiding. Now the building is completely destroyed. The Russians could not have known that this was a civilian shelter. Save Mariupol! Stop Russian war criminals! pic.twitter.com/bIQLxe7mli
— Dmitry Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 16, 2022
The mayor’s office also clarified on Telegram that “the entrance to the shelter is littered with garbage” and said that “information about the victims is being checked.”
For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry denied the bombing of the theatre, blaming the bombing on the account of the Ukrainian nationalist Azov Battalion.
Earlier, according to the Ukrainian army on Wednesday, a column of civilians fleeing the city towards Zaporozhye was fired from the Grad multiple launch rocket system. “Deaths” and injuries are reported, including a severely wounded child. On Telegram, the military posted a photo of a wounded and bloodied child.
Last week, a maternity hospital was blown up in Mariupol, which caused an international outcry. Moscow has also deployed the Azov Battalion.
In Mariupol, where more than 2,000 civilians have died, according to local authorities, conditions are dire. As early as March 13, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned against a “worst case scenario” if the warring parties “do not reach a humanitarian agreement as a matter of urgency.” “Time is running out for the hundreds of thousands of people trapped in the fighting,” the NGO writes. History will judge with horror what is happening in Mariupol if an agreement is not reached between the parties in the near future.”
Simon MALFATTO, Paz PISARRO, Jean-Michel CORNU / AFPMariupol besieged by Russian troops
More than 2,000 residents killed in Mariupol
In the besieged city, the inhabitants still lack water and food, and the port is blocked. Several attempts to deliver humanitarian aid to the city were unsuccessful. Faced with a lack of potable water, some residents are melting the snow to drink, according to the AP news agency.
There was a brief moment when people in #Mariupol were able to leave yesterday.
The ICRC was next to the thousands of civilians who did this.
Those who remained had little food, water and medicines, including our team.
We are urgently working to return aid.
— ICRC Ukraine (@ICRC_ua) March 16, 2022
On Tuesday, 20,000 people were evacuated from the port city. A humanitarian corridor used by car convoys connects Mariupol with Zaporozhye in the northwest via Berdyansk, approximately 270 km of road.
According to the Ukrainian Red Cross, civilians who were able to leave Mariupol have “very little food, water and medicine, including our team.” On Wednesday, the NGO also called on both sides to reach an agreement that would allow it to come to the aid of the civilian population.
Read also on The HuffPost: In Russia, Marina Ovsyannikova interrupts the most viewed news