Rescued more than a hundred people from the ruins of the theater attacked in Mariúpol, according to a parliamentarian

Satellite image of the theater that had the word ‘kids’ written on it – MAXAR

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MADRID, 17 (EUROPE PRESS)

A Ukrainian parliamentarian assured this Thursday that more than a hundred people have been rescued from the ruins of a theater in the city of Mariúpol (southeast) that was attacked on Wednesday and in which hundreds of civilians were refugees due to the blockade of the city ​​in the framework of the Russian military offensive.

“Good news, which is much needed. The bomb shelter of the Mariupol Drama Theater has held. About 130 residents have been rescued,” parliamentarian Olga Stefanishina said on her Facebook account. “The rubble is being removed. It’s a real miracle,” she said.

Hours earlier, parliamentarian Sergiy Taruta had indicated that there were survivors after the attack. “After a terrible night of uncertainty, on the morning of the 22nd day of war there is finally good news from Mariupol. The bomb shelter held. Rubble is being removed and people are alive,” he stressed.

Mariupol City Hall on Wednesday denounced the destruction by Russian forces of the city’s main theater. “The plane has dropped a bomb on a building where hundreds of peaceful residents were hiding,” he said in a message on his Telegram channel.

According to this same statement, the central part of the theater and the entrance to the building’s bomb shelter have been completely destroyed as a result of the attack. The deputy mayor of the city, Serhiy Orlov, told the British television network BBC that between 1,000 and 1,200 people had taken refuge in the building.

However, the Russian Defense Ministry denied any involvement in what happened and directly accused the Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi paramilitary group, of being responsible for this “new bloody provocation”. “Given the potential danger to the lives of civilians and the provocation that the nationalists already carried out on March 9 with the Mariupol Hospital 3, he emphasized.