Russian Forces Bomb Theater Where Hundreds Took Shelter: Ukrainian Officials
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A theater in the war-torn Ukrainian city of Mariupol was bombed by Russian forces while hundreds of civilians took refuge, Ukrainian officials claimed on Wednesday.
The Mariupol City Council posted to social media a photo of the destroyed building, claiming Russian troops “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 also alleged.
The Epoch Times evaluated the picture and confirmed it is of the theater in the city.
“It is still impossible to estimate the scale of this horrific and inhumane act, because the city continues to shell residential areas,” the City Council wrote on Telegram, adding: “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.”
❗ URGENT❗
The Russian military attacked #Mariupol‘s Drama Theater, where a large number of citizens were hiding!
It is unknown how many people died under the rubble. Now there are fierce battles. No one can reach the blockages, we don’t know if there are any survivors. pic.twitter.com/xgQStG3CQo— Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (@ua_parliament) March 16, 2022
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and the country’s Parliament also said the Mariupol theater was bombed, saying that a number of civilians were allegedly hiding there.
Russian officials have not publicly commented on the allegations.
“It is unknown how many people died under the rubble. Now there are fierce battles. No one can reach the blockages, we don’t know if there are any survivors,” said the Parliament on Twitter.
“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 added.
It comes as President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed into law $13.6 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine to help it obtain more weaponry and for humanitarian assistance. He previously announced a ban on Russian energy imports and called for a suspension of a trading status that lowers tariffs on Russian exports. The House is expected to vote to suspend that status as soon as this week.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, said Wednesday that Ukraine’s government was trying to obtain nuclear weapons and other “weapons of mass destruction” before the Feb. 24 invasion, according to state-run media.
“They are now trying to sweep up the traces of these secret programs. But we have every reason to believe that in the immediate vicinity of Russia, in Ukraine, components of biological weapons were effectively being created,” Putin also said.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials have dismissed the claims that Ukraine was operating laboratories to create biological weapons, saying such statements are disinformation used to create a pretext for the invasion.
Reuters contributed to this report.