Theater In Mariupol Where Hundreds Were Taking Refuge Bombed
MARIUPOL – The Mariupol City Council has posted an image of the Ukrainian city’s theater — where hundreds of people are said to have taken shelter — after it sustained heavy damage in a bombing Wednesday.
CNN has geolocated the image and confirmed it is of the theater. Videos showed a fire raging in the theater’s ruins.
The city council said that Russian forces had “purposefully and cynically destroyed the Drama Theater in the heart of Mariupol. The plane dropped a bomb on a building where hundreds of peaceful Mariupol residents were hiding.”
The council added on its Telegram channel: “It is still impossible to estimate the scale of this horrific and inhumane act, because the city continues to shell residential areas. It is known that after the bombing, the central part of the Drama Theater was destroyed, and the entrance to the bomb shelter in the building was destroyed.”
It said casualty numbers were still being confirmed.
“It is impossible to find words that could describe the level of cruelty and cynicism with which the Russian occupiers are destroying the civilian population of the Ukrainian city by the sea. Women, children, and the elderly remain in the enemy’s sights. These are completely unarmed peaceful people,” it said.
People in line for bread in Ukrainian city of Chernihiv killed by Russian shelling
At least 10 people queueing for bread were killed when Russian forces shelled the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Wednesday, according to the head of the regional administration, Vyacheslav Chaus.
Video geolocated by CNN shows what appear to be lifeless bodies on the ground, but the images of the bodies had been blurred.
It also showed someone being carried to a vehicle close by. It is not clear whether the individual was alive.
Chaus said the attack was indicative of Russia’s use of indirect fire against civilians.
“This is not the first such incoming shell [in the city], nor is it the first shelling of civilians by the enemy. The Russians are shelling and destroying mostly civilian infrastructure in the city of Chernihiv and other cities in the region,” he said while speaking on Ukrainian television.
Chernihiv is surrounded by Russian forces and has seen repeated shelling over the last week, much of it hitting residential areas.
