The newly renovated Mariupol Drama Theatre, Mariupol, Ukraine. Photo: Alexander Yermochenko / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
The Mariupol Drama Theatre, which became synonymous with Russian indifference to civilian lives when it was partially destroyed in a Russian airstrike in March 2022, has reopened following reconstruction, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported on Sunday.
Amnesty International confirmed in June 2022 that at least 12 civilians “and likely many more” had been killed in the attack on the Donetsk region port city, which it described as “a clear war crime”, carried out despite the fact that the word “children” was painted in giant letters on the ground in front of it.
Sunday’s reopening ceremony was attended by guests including Denis Pushilin, the Russian-appointed head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, and Alexander Beglov, the governor of St. Petersburg, whose authorities sent workers and architects to Mariupol to carry out the reconstruction.
Describing the theatre building as “iconic and complex”, Beglov said in a Telegram post that reconstruction work had not been allowed to stop “for even a day” and had involved up to 300 people.
The attack on the Mariupol theatre took place on 16 March 2022, when hundreds of civilians were believed to be sheltering in the building. Amnesty International said Russian troops most likely dropped two 500kg bombs from a military aircraft, which detonated simultaneously.
The Russian authorities have always denied any role in the attack, and the Russian Defence Ministry claimed on the day of the strike that the building had been mined and blown up by members of Ukraine’s Azov Battalion in what it described as a “bloody provocation”.
