An investigation by the Associated Press has found that around 600 people, and potentially far more, were killed in the Russian attack on a Mariupol theater in Ukraine where hundreds of civilians had been sheltering.
“Amid all the horrors that have unfolded in the war on Ukraine, the Russian bombing of the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater in Mariupol on March 16 stands out as the single deadliest known attack against civilians to date,” The Associated Press reported. “An Associated Press investigation has found evidence that the attack was in fact far deadlier than estimated, killing closer to 600 people inside and outside the building. That’s almost double the death toll cited so far, and many survivors put the number even higher.”
The incident was one of many Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians that has occurred since the Russia invaded the country in late February. The attacks have caused President Biden to accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of being a “war criminal.”
“It was the harshest condemnation of Putin’s actions from any US official since the war in Ukraine began three weeks ago. Previously, Biden had stopped short of labeling atrocities being documented on the ground in Ukraine as ‘war crimes,’ citing ongoing international and US investigations,” CNN reported after Biden first accused Putin of committing war crimes. “But on Wednesday, speaking with reporters at an unrelated event, Biden affixed the designation on the Russian leader.”
“I think he is a war criminal,” Biden said at the time, according to CNN.
