Ukrainian authorities are trying to reach what they believe could be hundreds of survivors in the rubble of a Mariupol theatre that was destroyed by a Russian air strike after being used as a bomb shelter.
Key points:
- Authorities continue to search for survivors after a Russian air strike hit a Mariupol theatre sheltering hundreds of people
- Reports of survivors have come through but no figures as of yet
- Russian air strikes continue to target towns in Kyiv and Kharkiv
Advisor to Mariupol’s mayor Petro Andrushchenko said some people had survived the blast.
“The bomb shelter held. Now the rubble is being cleared. There are survivors. We don’t know about the (number of) victims yet,” he told Reuters by phone.
Ukrainian MP Dmytro Gurin confirmed the news to the BBC and said over 1,000 people were in the shelter.
“The [theatre] building is destroyed, we have more than 1,000 women and children in the bomb shelter, in the basement,” Mr Gurin told the BBC.
A photo released by Mariupol’s city council showed an entire section of the large, three-storey theatre had collapsed after the strike on Wednesday evening.
At least as recently as Monday, the pavement in front of and behind the once-elegant theatre was marked with huge white letters spelling out “CHILDREN” in Russian, according to images released by the Maxar space technology company.
Rubble had buried the entrance to the shelter inside the theatre, and the number of casualties was unclear, Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional administration, said on Telegram.
Mr Kyrylenko said Russian air strikes also hit a municipal swimming pool complex in Mariupol where civilians, including women and children, had been sheltering.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said accusations the Russian military had attacked the theatre were incorrect.
“Of course, the Kyiv regime immediately tried to lay the blame for everything that happened in Mariupol, in particular, for blowing up the drama theatre building, on the Russian military, who, in their opinion, allegedly dropped an aerial bomb on the theatre building, Ms Zakharova said.
“Of course, this is a lie.”
Missile remains hit Kyiv apartment building
In Kyiv Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said Russia carried out further artillery and air strikes around the country overnight, including in the Kalynivka and Brovary suburbs of the capital, Kyiv.
In Kyiv, where residents have been huddling in homes and shelters, a fire broke out in an apartment building hit by remnants of a downed Russian rocket early on Thursday, killing one person and injuring at least three others, according to emergency services.
Firefighters evacuated 30 people from the top floors of the 16-storey building and extinguished the blaze within an hour.
On Thursday, Russian artillery destroyed a school and a community centre in Merefa, a city near the north-east city of Kharkiv, according to Merefa Mayor Veniamin Sitov.
There were no known civilian casualties.
The Kharkiv region has seen heavy bombardment as stalled Russian forces try to advance in the area.
Zelenskyy criticises Germany
Mr Zelenskyy addressed the German Bundestag by video link, pulling no punches in a speech that invoked the Holocaust and the Berlin Wall.
He accused Germany of putting its economy before his country’s security in the run-up to the Russian invasion.
“Every year politicians repeat ‘never again’,” said Mr Zelenskyy.
“And now we see that these words are simply worthless. In Europe a people is being destroyed, they are trying to destroy everything that is dear to us, what we live for.”
He also criticised the German government’s support for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project meant to bring natural gas from Russia.
“When we told you that Nord Stream was a weapon and a preparation for a great war, we heard in response that it was an economy after all. Economy.”
Ukraine and other countries had opposed the project, warning that it endangered Ukrainian and European security.
Mr Zelenskyy also noted Germany’s hesitancy when it came to imposing some of the toughest sanctions on Russia for fear it could hurt the German economy.
“We turned to you,” he said.
“Sanctions for the aggressor to feel that you are a force, we saw delays.
“We felt resistance, we understood that you want to continue the economy … Economy, Economy.”
He called on Germany not to let a “new wall” divide Europe, urging support for his country’s membership of NATO and the European Union.
He also referred to the dire situation in Mariupol. “Everything is a target for them,” he said, including “a theatre where hundreds of people found shelter that was flattened yesterday.”
Mr Zelenskyy’s address to the Bundestag came a day after he delivered a speech via video to the US Congress that garnered several ovations as he called for more help.
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AP
