Mariupol theater bombing a war crime, Amnesty says
Russian forces deliberately dropped two 1,000-plus-pound bombs on the Mariupol theater that was being used as a shelter March 16, resulting in a mass killing of civilians that amounted to a war crime, according to evidence cited in a report by the rights group Amnesty International released Thursday.
Amnesty said there was no indication the theater was a base of operations for Ukrainian soldiers but rather served as refuge for civilians seeking protection from weeks of relentless bombardment.
The report comes days after a Russian airstrike in a shopping mall on the central Ukraine city of Kremenchuk killed at least 18 and wounded dozens, drawing international condemnation. Russian authorities have denied targeting the mall.
The Amnesty team interviewed 52 survivors and first-hand witnesses, about half of whom were either in the theater or nearby. Using satellite imagery from that morning, the organization determined the sky was consistently clear enough for any pilot to see the word “CHILDREN” written in huge Cyrillic letters in the building’s front and back.
Accounts of the death toll have varied. Mariupol officials initially estimated around 300; an Associated Press investigation determined closer to 600 may have been killed. The Amnesty report could only confirm a dozen deaths while adding “it is likely that many additional fatalities remain unreported.”
USA TODAY ON TELEGRAM:Join our Russia-Ukraine war channel to receive updates straight to your phone
Latest developments
►British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said “toxic masculinity” helped trigger the war in Ukraine, saying that if Russian President Vladimir Putin were a woman, “I really don’t think he would’ve embarked on a crazy, macho war of invasion and violence in the way that he has.”
►Dmitry Medvedev, deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, cautioned Thursday that Moscow could see Western sanctions as a justification for war, calling the restrictions “boorish and cynical” and bordering on “economic war.”
►The government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, which remained in power thanks to the 2015 intervention of Russian forces amid a civil war, said it will recognize the “independence and sovereignty” of Ukraine’s separatists eastern republics in the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces.
Russia pulls forces out of strategic Snake Island
Russia withdrew its forces Thursday from Snake Island, a strategically important island that sits along a busy shipping lane in the Black Sea and has come to symbolize Ukrainian resistance to the invasion.
The island gained international attention in February when a Russian warship demanded Ukrainian troops surrender or face bombardment and the soldiers responded with expletives. The soldiers were captured and later freed during a prisoner exchange.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov called the withdrawal from Zmiyinyy (Snake) Island off Ukraine’s port of Odesa a “goodwill gesture” to demonstrate that the country is not interfering with the United Nations’ attempts to secure space for Ukraine to export agricultural products. Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Russia of blockading ports…
Read More: Mariupol theater bombing a war crime, Amnesty says