The mayor of the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol referred to as a Russian strike on a neighborhood theater the place civilians had been sheltering a “horrible tragedy” in a video late Wednesday.
“At present there was a horrible tragedy, one other tragedy, in our already mangled Mariupol, of which there’s already virtually nothing left,” Mayor Vadym Boychenko mentioned in a video posted on Telegram.
He mentioned a “direct strike” hit the theater Wednesday, and he blamed Russian forces, who’ve denied duty. Satellite tv for pc photographs from earlier than the assault confirmed the phrase “kids” written in Russian in giant white letters on the bottom on either side of the theater.
“We dwell in horrifying instances which can be referred to as conflict. … We wish to shut our eyes and overlook, like a nasty dream, all the things that’s occurring to us now — however we open them and see conflict once more, we see the devastation, we see all this horror,” he added within the bleak video deal with.
“We all know that, sadly, at present many weren’t fortunate,” Boychenko mentioned. Nonetheless, no official figures had been launched on casualties as of Thursday morning. Whereas the destiny of tons of of residents who had been sheltering within the Mariupol theater remained unclear, Ukrainian officers mentioned Thursday that rescue efforts had been being hampered by rubble and continued shelling.
Serhiy Taruta, a Ukrainian politician, wrote on Fb that there was “excellent news” Thursday and that many individuals had emerged alive from the theater. Oleksiy Honcharenko, a lawmaker from Odessa, mentioned on Telegram that the bomb shelter within the theater’s basement had withstood the strike and that, regardless of the particles, “persons are popping out of the shelter alive and properly!”
The BBC reported {that a} Ukrainian lawmaker, Dmytro Gurin, whose mother and father had been within the metropolis, mentioned that greater than 1,000 individuals sought security within the theater, amongst them kids, however that it appeared “most of them have survived,” he mentioned.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the bombing and in contrast the Russian bombardment of Mariupol to the Nazi siege of Leningrad throughout World Warfare II. “Our hearts are damaged by what Russia is doing to our individuals. To our Mariupol,” Zelensky mentioned in a video deal with, one in all a number of appeals he made Wednesday.
Russian Overseas Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denied Thursday that Moscow had bombed the theater, calling it a “lie.” She added: “The Russian armed forces don’t bomb cities, and everyone seems to be properly conscious of this. … The reality will nonetheless break via.”
Boychenko, the Mariupol mayor, promised to lift his metropolis from the ruins. Mariupol has confronted intense assaults from Russian forces as a strategic southern port and has been largely minimize off from the skin world for weeks. A maternity hospital made headlines final week after it got here underneath bombardment. Ukrainians blamed Russian forces; Moscow has claimed, with out proof, that the hospital was emptied of sufferers and used as a base for Ukrainian navy exercise.
David L. Stern, Mary Ilyushina and Amar Nadhir contributed to this report.
