SURVIVORS RESCUED FROM THEATRE
Clearly marked as a shelter for the aggressor
Survivors were being pulled from the rubble of the Mariupol theatre Thursday after it was bombed by Russian forces despite clear signs outside that it was sheltering children.
Casualty numbers were unclear Thursday night as rescuers struggled to remove debris from the pancaked building.
The region’s former governor said there were definitely some survivors.
“Truly good news from Mariupol on the morning of the 22nd day of the war after a horrific night: the bomb shelter has withstood. Rescuers are clearing out the debris; people are coming out of there alive,” Serhiy Taruta, a Mariupol resident and a former head of the Donetsk region, said.
Petro Andrushchenko, the mayoral adviser, told Reuters: “The bomb shelter held. Now the rubble is being cleared. There are survivors. We don’t know about the (number of ) victims yet.”
At least 1,000 women and children were thought to be using the theatre as a bomb shelter before it was hit late on Wednesday.
Satellite photos released by Maxar Technologies from a few days before the attack showed the Russian word “children” written in large script on the ground in front and behind the building.
“The only word to describe what has happened today is genocide, genocide of our nation, our Ukrainian people,” the city’s mayor Vadim Boychenko said in a video message on Telegram.
“We have difficulty understanding all of this. We refuse to believe, we want to close our eyes and forget the nightmare that happened today.”
Refugees from Mariupol arriving in nearby Zaporizhzhia said they had seen the theatre destroyed.
Roman Konyahin, a 55-year-old bus driver, said he had driven past it as his family escaped. “It was just four walls. The roof was totally gone,” he said.
Another woman, who gave her name as Olga, said the bombing had convinced her to try to leave. She said: “We lived near by the theatre. When it was destroyed, we decided to walk out. We walked for six miles before we got a lift.”
She said it was hoped that the numbers sheltering in the theatre had fallen as residents had managed to leave the encirclement. She said: “There’s a hope that some of them were in the first column that got out.”
Russia has denied bombing the theatre. Maria Zakharova, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, called it a “lie.” In a briefing, she said: “Russia’s armed forces don’t bomb towns and cities.”
Pictures emerged showing smoke rising from what was left of the building. Debris was strewn across the wellkept park.
Video from the theatre less than a week ago appeared to show civilians, including children, packed in the basement in the dark.
The Italian government said it was willing to rebuild the theatre.
“The heart is breaking from what Russia does to our people, our Mariupol, and our Donetsk region,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a late-night address on Wednesday.
The southern city of 450,000 people has become the most intense battleground of the Russian invasion, subjected to three weeks of siege and shelling which the Red Cross said had left “apocalyptic” conditions.
Mariupol’s city administration said in the past 48 hours some 6,500 private cars had fled the city, carrying around 30,000 people, arriving exhausted in Zaporizhzhya.
Thursday, the streets out of Mariupol were jammed with cars, many of them displaying signs declaring “children on board” in the windows. It remained unclear how long the humanitarian convoy might remain open.
More than 350,000 residents are thought to be still hiding in shelters and basements. “The destruction is enormous. According to preliminary estimates, about 80 per cent of the city’s housing stock is destroyed, of which almost 30 per cent cannot be repaired,” a statement said.
Authorities claimed the city is being hit by 50 to 100 bombs each day. They have recorded more than 2,500 dead, though estimate the real total may be closer to 20,000 because so many bodies are lying uncounted and unburied around the city.
Mariupol sits between eastern territory controlled by Russian-backed separatists on one side and the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014 on the other. Capturing it would give the Russians a land corridor all the way through, controlling the Sea of Azov.