Russian authorities demolished theatre, in Mariupol, says Mayor

• Russian authorities are removing the theatre, according to the exiled mayor’s aide.
• Petro Andryushchenko said occupying officials hid March bombing deaths.
• Bulldozer damage to the building’s back was captured on camera.

An assistant to the exiled Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol claims that Russian authorities have begun demolish the city’s abandoned theatre.

When Russian bombers struck the structure in March, Petro Andryushchenko charged that the occupying authorities were attempting to hide the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

A screen was just been built around the demolished theatre.

Bulldozer damage to the building’s back was captured on camera.

In order to create a new theatre “on the bones of Mariupol’s people,” Mr. Andryushchenko claimed that the Russians intended to leave the front of the theatre intact while destroying the rest of the building.

Last month, a screen with pictures of prominent Russian cultural leaders was built around the theatre’s wreckage.

The theatre was the center of city activity prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of last year and its siege of Mariupol.

The Bremen Town Musicians, a revival of a 1960s Soviet cult musical, is the alternative entertainment the city’s remaining residents have been promised this year by Russia’s proxy administration, which governs the city and the occupied regions of the neighboring Donetsk region.

The performance is being held at the Pioneers’ Palace, more than a kilometer distant from the bombed-out theatre.

It’s a far cry from the opulent new year events that took place in Mariupol last year.

The Associated Press estimated earlier this month that a cemetery in Mariupol had received 10,300 new burials after using satellite photos.

According to a reputed media organization, witnesses had witnessed Russian authorities remove bodies from the wreckage of demolished buildings and transporting them for burial.

According to Ukrainian officials, the city’s conflict claimed the lives of 25,000 people.

When hundreds of Ukrainian fighters ultimately submitted at the city’s Azovstal steel mill in May, Russia had been encircling Mariupol for months.

A study by Amnesty International, which denounced the strike as a blatant war crime, claimed that two months earlier, at around 10:00 on March 16, Russian aero planes dropped two 500kg bombs on the city’s theatre that exploded simultaneously.

The structure was being used by civilians as a safe haven during the siege, and in front of the theatre, a sizable sign in Russian spelling out “children” had been scrawled.

When the bombs exploded, there were about 1,200 individuals inside the building. According to AP investigation, the death toll was closer to 600 than the 300 estimated by Ukrainian officials.

The basement is where many of the remains were discovered.

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