Bestinau got that-
It took the world ten days to find out if anyone survived the bombing of a theater in Mariupol.
Footage filmed from inside the building shows people covered in dust, clearly in shock, but alive. Only now have those cell phone photos reached the outside world.
On March 16, a theater that could seat more than a thousand civilians was bombed in the heavily disputed city in southern Ukraine.
The word “children” was clearly marked in the ground outside and was visible from the air.
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Pregnant women took shelter in bombed theater
For the first time, Sky News has also been told to pregnant women rescued from a… bombed maternity hospital in Mariupol had been moved to the theater for safety.
Seven days later, the theater was also hit.
We spoke to Diana Berg who lived next door to the theater but fled the city before it was bombed.
“I know there were pregnant women who were taken from the maternity ward to the third hospital that had been bombed the days before,” she says.
“They were taken to the theater because it was a big building and they put these pregnant women with children in the actors’ dressing rooms. It was in this part that they were bombed. They were in the theater right at the point where it was hit.” . That’s what we know.”
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Pregnant women were killed and injured in the shelling of a maternity hospital in Mariupol
Hospital number three in Mariupol was a children’s hospital and maternity ward. Journalists were still in the city when it was hit by a Russian airstrike on March 9.
Images appeared of injured pregnant women trying to escape for their lives. According to Ms Berg, some of those women were subsequently taken to the theatre.
So far we do not know how many people lost their lives in the attack in the theater.
At least 300 lives lost
The Mariupol city council has said at least 300 people have been killed, according to eyewitnesses. It is not clear how many are still buried here.
Ms Berg says there are so many bodies in Mariupol now, not all of them are buried and body parts are hanging from trees. Those who still live in this nightmare are barely heard.
General view of the remains of the drama theater that was hit by a bomb on March 16
But British photographer Max Clarke recently took off with new images of the reality people live in.
“A lot of what happens on this side of the contact line goes unreported,” says Mr Clarke. “It’s almost indescribable how devastated that city is.”
“There is not a single building that is unburnt or unbroken. The people are just traumatized and dazed. They live without electricity, food or heating. Temperatures have only risen recently, but it was below zero until last week.”
Weeks ago, the city had almost all power out, there’s no internet, virtually no phone signal. The information flowing in and out of the city is almost non-existent.
A satellite image shows an overview of the Mariupol Theater and the surrounding area. Photo: Maxar/Reuters
Caught in a living hell
People who managed to leave Mariupol have told Sky News they did not know whether the country was under Russian control or not until they escaped.
He added: “Bodies are mostly buried now, but there are still some. You can definitely smell the ones that are inaccessible by debris. There are dogs feeding on bits of human bone. Bits of people. There are freshly dug graves everywhere. “
“There are burnt-out vehicles and charred vehicles with the charred remains of their drivers still there. We saw a blackened body as we drove in and the next day it was missing limbs and had several red exposed meats as the dogs had eaten it overnight It’s pretty hellish.’
The scenes he describes are unimaginable.
The people trapped in Mariupol can’t speak for themselves right now – but they need to be rescued from this living hell.