300 killed in strike on Mariupol theatre, Ukraine says as it forces Russians back from Kyiv
- More than 1,300 people had been sheltering inside the theatre after their homes were destroyed in Russia’s siege of the city, according to local accounts
- Ukrainian troops began recapturing towns east of Kyiv and Russian forces, which had been trying to seize the capital, were falling back
Ukrainian authorities in the besieged ruins of Mariupol said Friday that about 300 people died when a Russian air strike blew up a theatre where hundreds of civilians were sheltering – a catastrophic loss of civilian life that, if confirmed, is likely to further crank up pressure on Western nations to step up military aid.
In a vain attempt to protect those inside the grand, columned theatre from missile and air strikes that Russia has rained down on cities, an enormous inscription reading “CHILDREN” in Russian was posted outside the building and was visible from the air.
For days, the government in the battered port city was unable to give a casualty count for the March 16 attack. The post on its Telegram channel Friday cited eyewitnesses. It was not immediately clear whether emergency workers had finished excavating the theatre ruins or how witnesses arrived at the horrific figure of lives lost.
Still, the emerging picture of gruesome casualties could refocus attention on the refusal thus far of countries from the Nato alliance to supply warplanes or fly patrols over Ukraine’s airspace. The country’s embattled president has repeatedly pleaded for those measures to protect against such strikes.
Soon after the attack, Ludmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament’s human rights commissioner, said more than 1,300 people had been inside, many whose homes were destroyed in Russia’s siege of the city. The building had a relatively modern basement bomb shelter, and some survivors did emerge from the rubble after the attack.