Russia demolishes Mariupol drama theater to hide the fact of bombing it

The Russian occupation authorities have decided to demolish the back and central part of the drama theater in Mariupol, but keep the front part "as the basis for reconstruction."

Petro Andryushchenko, adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, reported the information on Telegram.

"The demolition of the drama theater ruins is an undoubted attempt to hide forever the physical evidence of the largest simultaneous deliberate murder of Ukrainians by Russian forces since the beginning of this phase of the war. The occupiers do not even hide their intentions," Petro Andryushchenko emphasized.

He noted that the Russian occupation authorities decided to demolish the back and central parts of the theater. They promise to leave the front part intact "as the basis for reconstruction".

"Only those parts of the building that prove the building was bombed, and not exploded from the inside as Russian propaganda claimed, are being dismantled. More than 300 Mariupol residents died," emphasized the mayor's advisor.

Petro Andryushchenko also stressed that this is the second time over the past century that Russia is establishing a theater at the mass grave. "For the second time in the last 100 years, Russia will build a drama theater literally on the bones of the dead. In Soviet times, it was built in the burial place of Wehrmacht soldiers, who were exhumed only in 2017-2018. Now they plan to build it on the bones of Mariupol residents."

• On March 16, 2022, Russia bombed the Mariupol Drama Theater, which served as a shelter for 1,000 people.
• On March 23, 2022, it was revealed that Russian forces were destroying evidence of killing civilians in a shelter under the Drama Theater.
• On May 20, 2022, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol said that the Russian forces had finished clearing the rubble of the Drama Theater in Mariupol, and now it was impossible to determine the number of dead.
• On June 30, Amnesty International, which investigated the destruction of the Mariupol Drama Theater, concluded that Russian forces deliberately dropped a bomb on the theater, knowing that hundreds of civilians were hiding there.
• As of July 24, Russia was preparing an "investigation" into the events in the Mariupol Drama Theater. And the Center for Countering Disinformation reported that Russia had spread fakes about the airstrike on the drama theater in Mariupol, but British human rights activists refuted them.
• On August 18, Petro Andryushchenko informed that Russian occupation authorities began to restore the drama theater destroyed by Russian troops and stole a unique playground from the park.