An Associated Press investigation has found evidence that the Russian bombing of a theatre in Mariupol, which stands out as the single deadliest known attack against civilians in Ukraine to date, was in fact far deadlier than estimated
She stood in just her bathrobe in the freezing basement of the Mariupol theatre, coated in white plaster dust shaken loose by the explosion. Her husband tugged at her to leave and begged her to cover her eyes.
Amid all the horrors that have unfolded in the war on Ukraine, the Russian bombing of the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater in Mariupol on March 16 stands out as the single deadliest known attack against civilians to date. An Associated Press investigation has found evidence that the attack was in fact far deadlier than estimated, killing closer to 600 people inside and outside the building. That’s almost double the death toll cited so far, and many survivors put the number even higher.
All the witnesses said at least 100 people were at a field kitchen just outside, and none survived. They also said the rooms and hallways inside the building were packed, with about one person for every 3 square meters of free space. “This strong witness testimony will be important in establishing that conduct was widespread or systematic,” said Gow, who also served as an expert witness at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
The city soon ordered the entire building opened as a bomb shelter, given its size, its unusually sturdy walls and its large basement. On the first day, about 600 people showed up, Bila said. But they avoided sleeping on the stage, which sat beneath a domed ceiling and felt uncomfortably like the bullseye it turned out to be. Only pets – cats and dogs – were kept there, directly under the dome. The cavernous basement prop room beneath it was empty.
Any hesitation they might have had about abandoning their home evaporated when the building next door caught fire. 'They came not to capture the city – they came to destroy it,' said Maria Kutnyakova, an IT specialist who was near the theatre when it was bombed.Maria Kutnyakova, Galina’s 30-year-old daughter, walked through the entire building in search of free space, noting the full rooms. She left her mother to handle the registration and went out by herself to find her uncle, who lived nearby. They hadn’t seen him in nine days.
Maria Radionova had laid out a corner for herself and her two dogs just underneath, in the hall of the drama theatre with the chandelier. The roof caved in and the chandelier shattered.She heard the telltale whistle from a plane. A man grabbed her by the neck, pressed her against a wall and covered her. Debris and fragments of bricks flew at them.
Victoria Dubovytska, 24, had just folded blankets into a pile in the projection room where she was staying with her 2-year-old daughter, Anastasia, and 6-year-old son, Artem. When the bomb hit, they were thrown against the wall. The blankets tumbled on top of the toddler, shielding her small body from the slabs that fell next.
Hoarse shouts for family members filled the air. At first she too shouted “Mom,” but she quickly realized that everyone around her was shouting the same word. So she screamed the family name instead. “I wasn’t killed in the theatre, but I’m going to die in the philharmonic,” Maria Kutnyakova told herself bitterly. “God, this is my cultural program for the day.”March 16 was Dmitriy Yurin’s 31st birthday. He was headed the 100 meters from his home to the theatre, as he had done every morning in the past week, for food and water.
“Some of them weren’t alive, and some of them breathed their last on the street,” Yurin remembered, sighing. “We said goodbye to them.” Yulia Marukhnenko also had been renting an apartment near the theatre. When she heard the bang, Marukhnenko first looked to the field kitchen, but she knew everybody there was buried. So she rushed to the basements.
She asked for a cigarette. She said she hadn’t smoked for seven months because her son had asked her to quit. But there was no longer anybody to quit for. A police officer who passed the theatre a week after the air strike said the smell of death was overpowering. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he still has relatives in Russia-controlled territory. Video taken by Russian state media shows no bodies inside, contrary to the descriptions of multiple witnesses.Lev Sandalov/The Associated Press
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