Less than a month into the Russian offensive in Ukraine, a theater had been badly damaged by an airstrike in the port city of Mariupol.
This bombardment, observed on March 16, constitutes "clearly a Russian war crime", affirms this Thursday a report by Amnesty International.
“Until now, we were talking about an alleged war crime.
Now we can clearly say that it was one, committed by the Russian armed forces,” said Oksana Pokaltchouk, the director of the NGO in Ukraine, during an interview in Paris.
Two explosions destroyed much of the theater, caused by "something very big: two 500-kilogram bombs" from an "air strike", she said.
According to some experts consulted by the NGO, the nature of the damage would invalidate the hypothesis defended by Moscow of an explosion inside the site caused by the Ukrainian forces.
Because at that time, the sky of Mariupol was “under Russian control” and there were “no Ukrainian planes”, explained Oksana Pokaltchouk.
Read alsoThey lived through hell in Mariupol: the story of a month of chaos in the martyred city
Satellite images taken before and after the attack show that there was "no Ukrainian military presence around the theater", she said.
"When there were so many military targets, (the Russians) chose a civilian one," she said.
Amnesty denounces a “deliberate” attack against a site welcoming hundreds of innocent people, in front of which the word “child” was written in large white letters, which makes it “clearly a war crime”.
The word “children” was written on the floor, in huge white letters and in Russian, in front and behind the Mariupol theater, March 16, 2022. Reuters/Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies
Only good news from the report, the number of killed would be much lower than estimated, when the municipality of Mariupol had reported about 300 dead.
“Amnesty International believes that at least a dozen people died in the attack, and surely many more, and that many others were seriously injured”, can we read in this report, drawn up from the testimonies of 50 witnesses and numerous experts.
A number of victims "lower than previous counts"
“This estimate is lower than previous counts,” acknowledges the NGO.
It is based on the fact that many refugees from the theater had managed to flee Mariupol "in the two days before the attack", and that "most of those who remained there were in basements and other zones protected from the explosion”, she explains.
“It is good news that fewer people have been killed.
But that doesn't change anything” on the merits, underlines Oksana Pokaltchouk.
And to insist: regardless of the number of victims, the attack on the Mariupol theater is “clearly a war crime”.
