Russia demolishes Mariupol Drama Theatre, which it bombed in March

Friday, 23 December 2022, 10:35

The Russian occupiers demolished the building of the Mariupol Drama Theatre, where about 300 people were killed as a result of a Russian airstrike in March.

Source: Oleksandr Tkachenko, Ukraine's Minister of Culture and Information Policy, on Telegram; Petro Andryushchenko, adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, on Telegram

Quote from Tkachenko: "The Mariupol Drama Theatre no longer exists. The occupiers are destroying the traces of their crimes, and they absolutely do not care whether it is a cultural monument or a piece of property belonging to another culture.

Bringing criminals to justice must be inevitable."

Details: Petro Andryushchenko also reports that the Russian occupiers are demolishing the exact part of the Drama Theatre that is the proof of the bombing. 

Quote from Andryushchenko: "The back and central parts of the theatre will be completely dismantled, but the front part will be left intact, as the "basis of the reconstruction". That is, only those parts of the building will be dismantled that prove the bombing, not the detonation from the inside fabricated by propaganda."

Background:

  • On 16 March, the occupying forces dropped a powerful bomb on the Mariupol Drama Theatre, where people who lost their homes were hiding.
  • Mariupol city council reported that about 300 people died in the Mariupol Drama Theatre as a result of the bombing by a Russian aircraft.
  • Russia denies its war crime, despite the conclusions of international organisations, claiming that the theatre was mined by the Ukrainian side and the detonation occurred from the inside.

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