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The last hours of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict were marked by the attack on the theater facilities of the port city where around a thousand people were taking refuge. The uncertainty about the damage increased until a part of a Ukrainian legislator arrived: there were no fatalities, a version not yet official. However, the narrative pull continues. Russia denies, Ukraine claims, the European Commission condemns and the United States seeks to lower the tone after the exacerbation of its president.
The aerial siege that attacked the Mariupol theater, a place where around a thousand people were sheltered, took the discussion about the war in Ukraine to another level. The deliberate attack on a reception space for civilians generated the rejection of the international community that targeted Russia.
The word “children” was written in Russian, in giant white letters on the grass, to notify Moscow planes that remained small and to avoid attacking the facilities.
The bombing caused, in addition to the reactions of repudiation, uncertainty regarding the state of the people who inhabited the theater. During the hours that passed between Wednesday and Thursday, all eyes were on there. However, legislator Serhiy Taruta calmed down by clarifying that the occupants “remain alive” and that the anti-aircraft base “resisted.”
Through his Facebook account, some statements that were collected by Interfax-Ukraine, the Ukrainian parliamentarian stated that “finally there was good news in Mariúpol”, after “a terrible night of uncertainty”.
“The bomb shelter resisted. The rubble began to be dismantled, people are coming out alive”, explained Taruta. In addition, he explained that the rescue units could not go to the ruins of the theater due to the severe difficulties that the city is going through.
An unofficial version that contrasts with the most recent call from local authorities, who said they are still trying to establish the balance of the victims, according to AFP.
Meanwhile, parliamentarian Dmytro Gurin told the ‘BBC’ that the shelter where the civilians were held resisted. “A few minutes ago we received information that the shelter and the people survived,” he said.
More than 24 hours later, an official balance of victims is not known nor has it been established that the occupants of the theater are safe and sound.
Russia denies responsibility and delegates it to Ukrainian nationalists
The Kremlin authorities disassociated themselves from the accusations that fell on them for the bombing of the Mariúpol theater where dozens were protecting themselves from the war.
The Russian Defense Ministry denied having carried out an attack on those facilities in the battered Ukrainian city, instead shifting the blame to local nationalists.
“According to the available reliable information, the fighters of the nationalist Azov battalion have carried out a new bloody provocation by blowing up the theater building that they had wired up,” they stated.
Mariupol, along with kyiv and Kharkiv, is one of Moscow’s main targets in this invasion. The situation has been critical for days due to being under siege. Its strategic location on the shores of the sea and the fact that it borders the Crimean peninsula and the separatist eastern Donbass make it a point of vital importance for Russia.
Ukraine and a new order of condemnation against Moscow
After the brutal attack on the Mariupol theater, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday asked the international community to consider Russia a “terrorist state” after accusing it of “deliberate” aggression.
“The Russian Air Force has dropped a huge bomb on the Mariupol theater where the city’s residents had taken refuge,” the president exclaimed in a message posted on his Facebook account.
Another horrendous war crime in Mariupol. Massive Russian attack on the Drama Theater where hundreds of innocent civilians were hiding. The building is now fully ruined. Russians could not have not known this was a civilian shelter. Save Mariupol! Stop Russian war criminals! pic.twitter.com/bIQLxe7mli
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 16, 2022
For his part, Foreign Minister Dimitro Kuleba described this event as “another horrible war crime” committed by Russian forces and that the building was “completely destroyed.”
The United States lowers its profile after an impeachment of President Biden
The North American country repudiated the fact, but not as energetically as it had been doing with other events of the war in Ukraine. The clear quota came from the president Joe Biden, after claiming that his counterpart Vladimir Putin is a “war criminal””, a statement that went on to lead the escalation of tension between the two countries.
The term “war criminal” is not a simple expression, it has legal connotations and is a condition that must be determined by international organizations.
Normally, officials avoid formulating such a qualification in a colloquial way and handle it with caution.
However, Biden’s statements forced the White House to try to play down the assertion. The spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, for instance, sought to justify the Head of State by saying that she “had spoken from the heart” and that there was a legal process underway to formalize such a determination.
The concrete thing is that the legal process that is being carried out in the International Criminal Court has barely begun and it is not politically correct for a weighty leader like the president of the United States to use it lightly.
The European Commission describes the aggression in Mariupol as “inhumane”
Through spokesman Peter Stano, the European Union entity branded what happened in the port city theater as a “reprehensible” act and argued that it incurred a “serious and serious violation of international humanitarian law.”
Stano urged Moscow to lift the attack on Mariupol and then extended it to the whole of Ukraine. “The same goes for all the aggression of Russian forces on Ukrainian territory,” he added.
With EFE and AP
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