A theatre in Mariupol sheltering hundreds of people was bombed by Russian forces on Wednesday. The authorities in Ukraine have accused the Russian troops of bombing a theatre and a pool facility which was housing hundreds of civilians, which include pregnant women and children who are trying to escape the Russian attacks in the southern city of Mariupol.
Sergei Orlov, the deputy mayor of the city, said between 1000 and 1200 civilians took refuge in the shelter. The number of casualties in the bomb blast is still unknown. Just recently a bomb blast by Russian troops hit a maternity and children’s hospital killing three people in the blast. A pregnant woman and her unborn child died afterwards.
Mariupol’s city council said in a statement that Russian troops destroyed the theatre using a Russian war plane to drop a bomb where people were hiding. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the bombed explosion that hit the theatre housing civilians saying that Russia deliberately attacked that shelter.
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The number of casualties is still unknown according to the authorities. “It is still impossible to estimate the scale of this horrific and inhumane act, because Russia continues to shell residential areas,” The council wrote on Telegram.
Mariupol has been besieged by Russian forces since the first of March. The failed attempts to establish safe evacuation corridors have made it difficult to get more people out of the city. 20 000 people have been able to leave Mariupol on Tuesday, Irina Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, said.
Source: Aljazeera, CNN, News24, BBC News, image from Aljazeera
