Russian airstrike on Mariupol theater likely left 600 dead, AP evidence suggests
LVIV, Ukraine - She stood in just her bathrobe in the freezing basement of the Mariupol theater, coated in white plaster dust shaken loose by the explosion.
Her husband tugged at her to leave and begged her to cover her eyes.But she couldn’t help it — Oksana Syomina looked. And to this day, she wishes she hadn’t.
Bodies were strewn everywhere, including those of children. By the main exit, a little girl lay still on the floor.Syomina had to step on the dead to escape the building that had served as the Ukrainian city’s main bomb shelter for more than a week.
The wounded screamed, as did those trying to find loved ones. Syomina, her husband and about 30 others ran blindly toward the sea and up the shore for almost five miles (eight kilometers) without stopping, the theater in ruins behind them."All the people are still under the rubble, because the rubble is still there — no one dug them up," Syomina said, weeping at the memory. "This is one big mass grave."Amid all the horrors that have unfolded in the war on Ukraine, the Russian bombing of the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater in Mariupol on March 16 stands out as the single deadliest known attack against civilians to date.
United States
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Cases: 46 252 513
Deaths: 750 423
Recovered: 0
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India
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Cases: 34 321 025
Deaths: 459 652
Recovered: 0
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Brazil
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Cases: 21 835 785
Deaths: 608 235
Recovered: 0
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United Kingdom
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Cases: 9 215 683
Deaths: 141 607
Recovered: 0
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Russia
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Cases: 8 494 589
Deaths: 237 619
Recovered: 0
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