An art school being used as a bomb shelter in the once-vibrant seaside Ukrainian town of Mariupol has been flattened in the latest relentless Russian strikes against civilian targets.
It is unclear if any of the 400 people thought to be sheltering in the G12 Art School survived, according to the Mariupol city council in a statement on its Telegram channel early Sunday.
The new attack comes as rescue workers continue to reach the more than 1,300 people thought to be trapped in a bomb shelter under the Drama theater across town, which was destroyed in an attack earlier in the week. Continued shelling on the city have hindered rescue efforts and it is unclear if any one who may have survived the original impact is still alive under the considerable rubble.
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zenelensky said the attacks against Mariupol, which now include the art school, theater, and a maternity hospital, will “go down in history of responsibility for war crimes.” In a statement released early Sunday he said, “To do this to a peaceful city, what the occupiers did, is a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come.”
The latest attacks are part of an ongoing effort by Russian forces to secure the vital port city of Mariupol, which has not had electricity, water or sewage service for several weeks. Mariupol remains one of the most important cities on Russia’s radar because it would provide a crucial land link between Crimea and the Russian-backed regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. Currently the two regions are joined only by Azov sea. Local authorities say 2,300 people have been killed in the city since Russia invaded last month. Many were dumped into hastily dug mass graves.
On Sunday, the U.K. Ministry of Defense, monitoring the situation closely, says there is no indication things will get better any time soon. “It is likely Russia will continue to use its heavy firepower to support assaults on urban areas as it looks to limit its own already considerable losses, at the cost of further civilian casualties,” U.K. Defense ministry said Sunday, adding that the constant bombardment has led to “widespread destruction and large numbers of civilian casualties.”
While those who remain in the besieged city are vulnerable to these increased attacks, disturbing news that some who have been allowed to leave are being held under duress in Russia. Ukrainian official Pyotr Andryuschenko, told The New York Times that as many as 4,500 residents of Mariupol were taken to the Russian city of Tangarog—which borders Ukraine in the southeast—without their passports. The forcible relocation of the residents has not been confirmed by Western media, but several Ukrainian relatives of those reportedly taken tell of terrifying circumstances under which Russians took them from their homes. “Now the Russians are walking through the basements, and if there are people left there, they forcibly take them to Taganrog,” a doctor named Eduard Zarubin, who managed to escape told Ukrainian news outlets.
The mayor of Mariupol Vadym Boichenko compared taking citizens to Russia to the “horrific events of World War II, when the Nazis forcibly captured people.” He told the Associated Press, “Children, elderly people are dying. The city is destroyed and it is wiped off the face of the earth.”
