The bomb shelter beneath the ruins of a Mariupol theater hit by a Russian airstrike is reportedly intact, and the “majority” of the “more than 1,000 people” taking refuge in it have survived, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday.
Ukrainian authorities were working Thursday morning to extract the survivors from the rubble.
“The bomb shelter in Mariupol Drama Theatre has survived the brutal Russian missile. At least, majority stayed alive after bombing. People are getting out from the rubble,” Iuliia Mendel, a Ukrainian journalist and former spokeswoman for President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Thursday.
The bomb shelter in Mariupol Drama Theatre has survived the brutal Russian missile. At least, majority stayed alive after bombing. People are getting out from the rubble
— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) March 17, 2022
RUSSIAN FORCES BOMBED MARIUPOL THEATER WITH HUNDREDS OF CIVILIANS, CITY COUNCIL SAYS
The bomb shelter underneath the theater “sustained the bombardment,” and “people are coming out alive,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Information said on Thursday, citing Ukrainian Parliament member Serhiy Taruta.
⚡️The bomb shelter under the Mariupol Drama Theatre has sustained the bombardment, says MP and former Donetsk region governor Serhiy Taruta. People are coming out alive as the rubble is being cleared. The information is yet to be confirmed by officials. #SaveMariupol #StopRussia
— Stratcom Centre UA (@StratcomCentre) March 17, 2022
“It’s a miracle — civilians that were hiding in a basement at the Drama Theater in Mariupol survived the air strike. Now they are getting evacuated from underneath the ruins,” Illia Ponomarenko, a reporter with the Kyiv Independent, said on Twitter.
It’s a miracle – civilians that were hiding in a basement at the Drama Theater in Mariupol survived the air strike.
Now they are getting evacuated from underneath the ruins.— Illia Ponomarenko ?? (@IAPonomarenko) March 17, 2022
The city council of Mariupol decried the Wednesday bombing of the theater, calling the act “genocide of the Ukrainian people.”
The theater served as the largest shelter in Mariupol, according to Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the city’s mayor.
“According to preliminary data, more than 1,000 people were hiding there,” Andriushchenko said on Wednesday, noting that efforts assess the damage to the shelter on Wednesday were difficult because of constant shelling by Russian forces.
Satellite images from Maxar Technologies taken on Monday show the Mariupol theater before the Russian airstrike. The word “children” is visible, written in large white letters in Russian, in front of and behind the building.
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The latest United Nations estimates indicate 1,900 civilian casualties, including 726 deaths, have occurred in Ukraine since the war began on Feb. 24.
