Anniversary of Mariupol theatre bombing
On Mar. 16, 2022, Russia conducted an air strike on the Drama Theatre in Mariupol, Donetsk region.
At the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the theatre was a shelter for more than a thousand Mariupol residents, including women and children. People wrote “CHILDREN” on the ground in front of the building to protect themselves.
The Drama Theatre, the city’s cultural center, had been identified as a secure place for people who have lost their homes and livelihoods. The Russian army knew that as they specifically targeted the place.
As a result of the Russian attack on the Mariupol Drama Theatre, approximately 300 people were estimated to have been killed, the Mariupol City Council reported. With one swift action, the Russian forces took hundreds of innocent civilian lives.
To draw attention to the horrific act of mass violence, activists around the world had then inscribed “CHILDREN” in front of theatres in capital cities. Today, the Mariupol Drama Theater has been demolished by the Russian occupying forces in attempts of burying physical evidence of the single largest deliberate act of mass killing of civilians since the beginning of Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. What’s left of the theater is surrounded by scaffolding.
The world has no right to forget about this purposeful mass killing of Ukrainian civilians. Eternal memory to all those whose lives were taken by Russian terror!