LAST UPDATE | 16 Mar 2022

Another horrendous war crime in Mariupol. Massive Russian attack on the Drama Theater where hundreds of innocent civilians were hiding. The building is now fully ruined. Russians could not have not known this was a civilian shelter. Save Mariupol! Stop Russian war criminals! pic.twitter.com/bIQLxe7mli

— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 16, 2022

RUSSIAN FORCES HAVE destroyed a theatre in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol where hundreds of people were sheltering, officials have said.

Mariupol city council said the building was hit by an air strike but there was no immediate information on casualties.

“Russia purposefully destroyed the Drama Theatre, where hundreds of people are hiding,” Mariupol city authorities said in a statement on Telegram.

Officials posted a photo of the theatre building, whose middle part was completely destroyed, with thick white smoke rising from the rubble. Officials said a bomb was dropped on the building from an airplane.

City authorities were trying to establish the number of casualties, but their efforts were hampered by the fact that residential neighborhoods were under shelling.

“It is impossible to find words to describe the level of cynicism and cruelty, with which Russian invaders are destroying peaceful residents of a Ukrainian city by the sea,” the official statement read.

Satellite images of the theatre on March 14, shared by private satellite company Maxar, showed the word ‘children’ clearly etched out in the ground in Russian on either side of the building.

Russia’s defence ministry denied that its forces bombed the city today and stated the building was destroyed in an explosion set off by Ukraine’s nationalist Azov battalion.

Moscow has already blamed the military unit for last week’s bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol, which sparked an international outcry.

In Kyiv, residents huddled in homes and shelters during a city-wide curfew that runs until tomorrow morning, as Russia shelled areas in and around the city, including a residential neighbourhood just a couple of miles from the presidential palace.

A 12-storey apartment building in central Kyiv erupted in flames after being hit by shrapnel.

A total of 10 people were killed while queuing for bread in the northern city of Chernihiv, the Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s Office said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, went before the US Congress via video and, invoking Pearl Harbour and 9/11, pleaded with the US for more weapons and tougher sanctions against Russia, saying: “We need you right now.”

US President Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” in his sharpest condemnation of the Russian leader since the invasion began.

He also announced the US is sending an additional $800 million (€725 million) in military aid to Ukraine, including more anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons and drones.

International pressure against the Kremlin mounted and its isolation deepened as the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, ordered Russia to stop attacking Ukraine, though there was little hope it would comply.

Also, the 47-nation Council of Europe, the continent’s foremost human rights body, expelled Russia.

While Moscow’s ground advance on the Ukrainian capital appeared largely stalled, Putin said the operation was unfolding “successfully, in strict accordance with pre-approved plans” and he attacked Western sanctions against Moscow.

He accused the West of trying to “squeeze us, to put pressure on us, to turn us into a weak, dependent country”.

Another round of talks between the two sides was scheduled for today.

After yesterday’s negotiations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said a neutral military status for Ukraine was being “seriously discussed” by the two sides, while  Zelenskyy said Russia’s demands for ending the war were becoming “more realistic”.

Hopes for diplomatic progress to end the war rose after Zelenskyy acknowledged on Tuesday in the most explicit terms yet that Ukraine is unlikely to realise its goal of joining Nato. Putin has long depicted Ukraine’s Nato aspirations as a threat to Russia.

Lavrov welcomed Zelenskyy’s comment and said “the businesslike spirit” starting to surface in the talks “gives hope that we can agree on this issue”.

Another source of dispute is the status of Crimea, which was seized and annexed by Russia in 2014, and the separatist-held Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, which Russia recognises as independent. Ukraine considers both part of its territory.

The fighting has sent more than 3 million people fleeing Ukraine, by the United Nations’ estimate. The UN reported that over 700 civilians have been confirmed killed but that the real number is higher.

Additional reporting by AFP.