A year ago, on March 16, Russian military purposefully dropped a FAB-500 high-explosive aerial bomb on the Mariupol theater. At that time, up to 1,200 civilians were hiding in the building. According to preliminary estimates, 300 people died on the spot.

The occupiers, trying to hide the war crime, demolished the theater under the pretext of the so-called reconstruction.

Because of the bombing, the central part of the theater was destroyed, and the entrance to the bomb shelter located in the building was under the rubble.

The theater served as a shelter for hundreds of civilians and the word ‘CHILDREN’ written in large white Russian letters warned about it.

‘A year ago, Russia purposefully and brutally dropped a super-powerful bomb on the Drama Theater in the center of Mariupol. Next to the building there was the inscription ‘Children’, which was impossible not to notice. Hundreds of people were hiding there from shelling’, president Zelensky said in his today’s statement.