Survivors emerge from Ukraine theatre hit in airstrike

Although the building withstood the impact of a bomb, it was unclear if there were any deaths due to the incident

Survivors began to emerge on Thursday as authorities worked to rescue hundreds of civilians trapped in the basement of a theatre blasted by Russian airstrikes in the besieged city of Mariupol, while ferocious Russian bombardment killed dozens in a northern city over the past day, the local governor said.

The strikes the previous evening had left a large section of the grand, three-three storey theatre building in the centre of Mariupol collapsed in a smoking ruin, according to photos released by the city council.

Inside, hundreds of men, women and children—up to 1,000 according to some officials—had taken shelter in the basement, seeking safety amid Russia's strangulating 3-week siege of the strategic southern port city.

Rescuers worked to clear rubble that had blocked the entrance to the basement, despite new strikes reported elsewhere in the city Thursday. Miraculously, the shelter stood firm, officials said. “The building withstood the impact of a high-powered air bomb and protected the lives of people hiding in the bomb shelter," Ukraine's ombudswoman Ludmyla Denisova said on the Telegram messaging app Thursday.

She and Ukrainian parliament member Sergiy Taruta said some survivors had emerged. “People are coming out alive,” Taruta wrote on Facebook, though he did not say how many.

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It was not known if there were injuries or deaths among those inside. Another lawmaker, Lesia Vasylenko, who was in London in a delegation visiting Parliament Thursday, said there were reports of injuries but no deaths.

At least as recently as Monday, huge white letters on the pavement in front of and behind the theatre spelt out “CHILDREN” in Russian to alert warplanes of those inside, according to images released by the Maxar space technology company. The Russian defence ministry denied bombing the theatre or anywhere else in Mariupol on Wednesday.

The strike against the theatre was part of a furious bombardment of civilian targets in multiple cities over the past day.

Also struck in Mariupol on Wednesday was a municipal pool where pregnant women and women with children were taking shelter, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional administration. Hours later, there was no word on casualties in that strike.

To the north, at least 53 people were brought to morgues over the past 24 hours in the city of Chernihiv, killed amid heavy Russian airstrikes, artillery bombardment and ground fire, the local governor Viacheslav Chaus told Ukrainian TV on Thursday.

Ten people were killed while lining up for bread in the city, the Ukrainian General Prosecutor's Office said Wednesday. Russia has denied involvement.

Chaus said civilians were hiding in basements and shelters without access to utilities in the city of 280,000 people. “The city has never known such nightmarish, colossal losses and destruction,” he said.

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Chernihiv, which is near the borders with Belarus and Russia, was among the first Ukrainian cities to come under attack from Russian forces when the invasion began three weeks ago.

In Kyiv, where residents have been huddling in homes and shelters, emergency services said a fire broke out in an apartment building hit by remnants of a downed Russian rocket early Thursday, killing one person and injuring at least three.

Firefighters evacuated 30 people from the top floors of the 16-story building and extinguished the blaze within an hour.

Russian artillery destroyed a school and a community centre in Merefa, a city near the northeast city of Kharkiv, according to Merefa's mayor Veniamin Sitov. There were no known civilian casualties. The Kharkiv region has seen heavy bombardment as stalled Russian forces try to advance in the area.

The UN Security Council is to meet on Thursday at the request of six Western nations that sought an open session on Ukraine ahead of an expected vote on a Russian humanitarian resolution that they have sharply criticized for making no mention of Moscow's war against its smaller neighbour.

“Russia is committing war crimes and targeting civilians,” Britain's UN Mission tweeted, announcing the call for the meeting that was joined by the US, France and others. “Russia's illegal war on Ukraine is a threat to us all.”

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