There is still no word on possible deaths or the condition of survivors after a theater, which was being used as a shelter, was hit in the besieged city of Mariupol, Ukraine, on Wednesday night.
About 1,200 people are believed to have been sheltering in the theater when it was hit by what Ukrainian officials say was a Russian air strike.
The first reports from former Donetsk regional chief Sergiy Taruta on Thursday morning were that people were emerging alive from the rubble of the building. The comments were endorsed by Liudmyla Denisova, human rights commissioner in the Ukrainian parliament.
“In Mariupol, the liberation of civilians from the rubble of the theater began. The building withstood the impact of a high-powered aerial bomb and protected the lives of people hiding in the air-raid shelter. Work is underway to unlock the basement,” Denisova said in a statement on Telegram.
Adults and children, she said, were making it out alive, but the full extent of what had happened was still unclear. “Currently, there is no information about the dead or injured under the rubble of the theater,” she declared.
Images show theater that housed civilians in Mariupol destroyed after Russian bombing
Denisova called the attack “an act of genocide and a terrible crime against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”
Russia denied that its forces hit the building and instead accused “militants of the nationalist ‘Azov’ battalion” of blowing up the theater.
The Azov Battalion is an ultranationalist militia that has since been integrated into the Ukrainian armed forces.
Source: CNN Brasil
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