Ukraine has blamed Russia for bombing a theater building in Mariupol where many civilians were present. As reported by Deputy Mayor Sergei Orlov to the BBC, around 1,000 to 1200 people had taken shelter in the theater building.
The number of deaths is uncertain, but a local MP stated that the basement where people were taking refuge had withstood the blast.
“It appears that the majority of them have survived,” Dmytro Gurin, told the BBC.
Emergency workers were having difficulties reaching the structure, according to a city official, owing to constant shelling.
According to the BBC, photographs of the theatre show significant damage and smoke streaming from the location.
Russian air strikes and shelling have previously damaged a hospital, a church, and apartment complexes.
The city council of Mariupol, UkrainianNews.com reports, has stated that Russian forces “purposely and callously” destroyed the theatre, calling it a “plane dropped a bomb on a facility where hundreds of innocent people were hiding.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said it was a “war crime,” while the city council labeled it a “crime against humanity.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has condemned the attack, stating that Russia had deliberately targeted the theater.
The BBC was informed that many children and elderly people were holed up inside, with the situation rapidly worsening.
At least 2,400 people have been killed in Mariupol since the start of the war, according to local authorities. Many of the victims are being buried in mass graves.
Around 300,000 people are believed to be trapped within the city, where running water, electricity and gas have been shut off.
Food and water are becoming increasingly limited as the Russian troops have prohibited the transportation of humanitarian supplies.
Hours after word of the devastation emerged, the Russian Ministry of Defence denied that it had launched an air assault on the theatre. RIA reported that hours later.
According to Mr Orlov, the deputy mayor, about 1,500 automobiles have managed to flee Mariupol on Wednesday. However, he said that a Russian assault on the convoy left at least five people wounded, including a child.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) president, Peter Maurer, called for improved access to those caught up in the conflict, stating that it was causing “unbearable agony”. Mr Maurer, who is on a five-day visit to Ukraine, said the situation in Mariupol was “like a waking nightmare.”
In the northern city of Chernihiv, at least 10 individuals were killed by Russian shelling on Wednesday, according to Ukraine’s prosecutor general. Bodies can be seen on a street in unverified footage released by a local media outlet.