Merefa: At least twenty-one people have been killed by Russian artillery that destroyed a school and a community centre in Marfa, near the northeast city of Kharkiv, Ukraine officials said. Merefa Mayor Veniamin Sitov said the attack occurred just before dawn on Thursday.
The Kharkiv region has seen heavy bombardment as stalled Russian forces try to advance in the area. Meanwhile, rescuers searched for survivors in the ruins of a theatre ripped apart by a Russian airstrike in the besieged city of Mariupol, while a ferocious bombardment left dozens dead in a northern city over the past day, authorities said.
Hundreds of civilians had been living in the grand, columned theatre in central Mariupol after their homes were destroyed in three weeks of fighting in the strategic port city. Nearly a day after the attack, there were no reports of deaths. With intense street fighting cutting off much of the city from the flow of information, there were also conflicting reports about whether survivors had emerged from the rubble.
“We hope and we think that some people who stayed in the shelter under the theatre could survive,” but it remained unclear if there were any survivors, Petro Andrushchenko, an official with the mayor’s office, told AP. He said the building had a relatively modern basement bomb shelter designed to withstand airstrikes.
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(AP)
