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Ukraine claimed on Thursday that Russia had destroyed a theatre harbouring more than a thousand people in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, with the toll yet unknown.
Officials posted images showing the once gleaming whitewashed three-storey theatre hollowed out and ablaze, with bricks and scaffolding piled high.
“The invaders destroyed the Drama Theatre. A place where more than a thousand people found refuge. We will never forgive this,” the Mariupol City Council said in a Telegram post.
Days before the apparent attack satellite images — shared by private company Maxar — clearly showed the words “DETI” — or children in Russian — etched out in the ground on either side of the building.
Mariupol mayor Vadym Boichenko called the attack a “horrifying tragedy.”
“People were hiding there. And some said they were lucky to survive, but unfortunately not all were lucky,” he said in a video message.
“The only word to describe what has happened today is genocide, genocide of our nation, our Ukrainian people. But I am confident that the day will come when our beautiful city of Mariupol will rise out of the ruins again.”
For days Russian forces have bombarded the city — which once had about half a million residents — cutting power, food and water supplies.
Ukrainian officials branded the bombing a war crime.
“It is impossible to find words to describe the level of cynicism and cruelty, with which Russian invaders are destroying peaceful residents of a Ukrainian city by the sea,” an official statement read.
AFP/Punch