Russian airstrikes have blown up a theater in Mariupol that served as a makeshift shelter for hundreds of people, Ukrainian officials said Thursday when Russian President Vladimir Putin said a “special operation” in Ukraine was going according to plan.
The Ukrainian government said the theater had been bombed although the word “CHILDREN” was spelled out in giant letters visible from the sky in front of the building to protect it. As a result of the strikes, many civilians remained buried in the burning rubble, according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. How many people were killed or injured is not reported.
A photo published by the Mariupol City Council shows that a whole part of the huge three-storey theater collapsed after the strike on Wednesday night. Several hundred people have taken refuge in the basement of the building, seeking safety amid a 3-week siege of a strategic port in the Sea of Azov by Russia.
RETURNED TO A FRIEND:Heart images explore the destroyed residential areas of Ukraine
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Adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs Vadim Denisenko said that 90% of Mariupol was destroyed or damaged, and almost no building remained intact. Most of the 400,000 residents remain in the city, he said.
“Evacuation and rescue remain extremely difficult due to constant Russian shelling,” Denisenko said. “It’s not just a humanitarian catastrophe.”
Recent events
►Former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko called on Europe to stop buying oil and gas from Russia: “You pay Putin $ 50 million every hour. Every hour. And this money is used to kill us Ukrainians. “
►Six Western countries – the United States, Britain, France, Ireland, Norway and Albania – have requested an open meeting on Ukraine before the United Nations is expected to vote on Russia’s humanitarian resolution on Friday, which was cut short. about him invasion of Ukraine.
►Ukrainian and Russian delegations held talks again on Wednesday on video. An official at Zelensky’s office said the main topic was whether Russian troops would remain in separatist regions in eastern Ukraine after the war and where the borders would be.
►Three Panamanian-flagged ships have been hit by Russian missiles in the Black Sea since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and one has sunk, Panamanian authorities said on Wednesday.
Putin says that the “special operation” in Ukraine is going well
In a speech broadcast on Russian television, Putin said that the “special operation” of his troops in Ukraine was going according to plan and that all goals would be achieved. He repeated a number of false allegations of invasion, including conspiracy theory that Ukraine was developing weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear and biological weapons. He also said that by imposing sanctions, the West is trying to “cancel” Russia. The Russian economy must adapt to new realities, he said.
“The West thinks we will retreat,” Putin said in a translation from the Latvian media Meduza. “The West does not understand Russia.”
Saying goodbye to their families, Ukrainian men stood up for the fight
LVIV, Ukraine – As millions of Ukrainian women and children are moving west run away Russia’s war in their country is spreadingthe largely unspoken front line – open, full of burning psychological trauma – continues to expand across Ukraine: the men they leave behind.
Many women interviewed by USA TODAY were too overwhelmed with emotion to touch on the topic of leaving their husbands, but many Ukrainian men showed remarkable stoicism, speaking of the pain of family separation that has no predictable end. They consider it their duty to defend their country.
“My family understands that if we do not win this battle, future generations – maybe even the whole world – will not have a good life,” said Kotsa’s 37-year-old husband Igor, a developer who has become head of security. for the Lviv Center for Humanitarian Aid, which helps provide professional and civilian armed forces of Ukraine. Read more here.
– Kim Helmgaard and Jessica Kostelnyak
Biden calls Putin a “war criminal”
For the first time, President Joe Biden publicly called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” on Wednesday for his continued attack on Ukraine, which killed hundreds of civilians.
“I think he is a war criminal,” Biden said in response to a reporter’s question after a speech at the White House on the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
Earlier on Wednesday, Biden has authorized an additional $ 800 million in military aid to Ukraine. He promised that the American people would be “steadfast in our support for the people of Ukraine in the face of Putin’s immoral, unethical attacks on civilians.”
“We are united in our disgust at Putin’s depraved offensive,” he said.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the president “spoke from the heart and spoke from what you saw on television, which is the barbaric actions of a brutal dictator through his invasion of a foreign country.”
The State Department has said it is considering Russia’s actions for possible war crimes, and the trial, according to Psaki, is ongoing.
“Joey Harrison.”
Former Russian ambassador to Putin: he kills Ukrainians “indiscriminately”
Michael Anthony McFaul served on the U.S. National Security Council as Senior Director of Russia and Eurasia until President Barack Obama was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Russia. For five years, McFaul regularly sat in front of Russian President Vladimir Putin, trying to improve relations between the two superpowers.
As US ambassador to Russia, McFaul met regularly with Russian pro-democracy activists, much to the chagrin of Putin’s government. He is now on the Kremlin’s sanctions list against Russia. Today, McFaul works as a professor of international studies at Stanford University and is the director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
On Tuesday, McFaul gave an exclusive interview to the Great Falls Tribune, part of the USA TODAY Network, in which he discussed Putin’s war in Ukraine, China’s role in the conflict, and commented on additional US measures. may accept opposition to the Russian invasion.
“It’s just shocking and horrible, traits that Putin has already crossed,” McFaul told the Tribune. He is deliberately terrorizing civilians. He is killing old people, women and children, young children, people in hospitals, people trying to give birth. This is a horrible way of waging war. He is not fighting Ukrainian soldiers, he is fighting the Ukrainian people. And he is killing them indiscriminately. ” Read more here.
– David Murray, Great Falls Tribune, USA TODAY
Contributed by: Associated Press
