On March 16, an airstrike hit a theater sheltering hundreds of civilians in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which remains under siege by Russian forces. The hit was initially reported by Mariupol’s city council on Telegram.
The Donetsk Regional Theater of Drama has a distinctive red roof, was not close to other buildings, and the words “children” were painted – in huge white letters on the pavement on two sides of the building – for pilots to see.
Exact casualties are unknown. Rescuers worked to pull out survivors, finding 130 by March 17. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, up to 1,300 people had been sheltered in the building, and many may still be trapped under rubble.
Russia’s military and state media quickly began spinning the attack by weaving it into the false Kremlin narrative that the war on Ukraine is about fighting fascism and Nazis.
A story published by Russia’s RIA Novosti state news agency quoted the Russian Defense Ministry stating that Ukrainian forces were responsible:
"According to the available reliable data, the militants of the Azov nationalist battalion committed a new bloody provocation by blowing up the theater building they had mined," the ministry was quoted as saying.
That is unsubstantiated and likely false.
The ministry provided no evidence, and the statement was contradicted by other Russian claims, including an assertion that Azov forces were sheltering in the building. In both Ukraine and Syria, the...
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