Authorities in Ukraine have accused Russian forces of bombing a theatre as well as a pool facility in the besieged southern city of Mariupol where hundreds of civilians, including pregnant women and children, are said to have taken refuge from the conflict.
Media from the head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration, shows a completely destroyed middle section of the theatre building, with thick white smoke rising from the rubble.
Videos of the pool facility showed windows, doors and the roof blown out.
Satellite images of the theatre on March 14, shared by private satellite company Maxar, showed the words “children” clearly etched out in the ground in Russian on either side of the building.
“It is impossible to find words to describe the level of cynicism and cruelty, with which Russian invaders are destroying peaceful residents of a Ukrainian city by the sea,” it added.
The Russian defence ministry, however, denied attacking the building and accused the Azov Battalion, a far-right Ukrainian militia, of blowing it up, according to the RIA news agency.