Fears were growing tonight for more than 1,000 civilians thought buried under the rubble of a Ukrainian theatre reduced to rubble by Russia ’s bombs.
The rescue effort has been severely hampered as most of the city of Mariupol’s emergency services have been destroyed and many of its doctors killed.
Just a few more emerged today from the ruins – one with serious injuries – after Russia’s barbaric attack on Wednesday.
As many as 1,300 people are thought to have been in the basement of the three-storey building and only around 130 have been able to get out so far.
Local politician Serhiy Taruta warned hundreds of possible survivors will die because there is nobody to pull them out.
He said: “No one understands. Services that are supposed to help have been demolished, rescue and utility services are destroyed.
“A lot of doctors have been killed. This means survivors will either die under the ruins of the theatre, or have already died.”
Human rights official Lyudmyla Denisova said there was still no information on the remaining civilians thought to be in the building.
Today Russian troops renewed assaults on Ukraine ’s cities, shelling residential buildings and reducing infrastructure.
The port city of Mariupol is now believed to be 90% destroyed.
President Vladimir Putin ’s military launched 6am strikes as far west as Lviv, just 40 miles from the Polish border.
Four strikes from cruise missiles from the Black Sea hit an aeroplane repair complex close to Lviv airport in the west, just five miles from the city, wounding one person.
Two missiles fired at Lviv were blown out of the sky by air defence systems and huge smoke plumes billowed into the air near Lviv.
The first refugees from Mariupol arrived in the city, where activists today lined up 109 prams to highlight the number of children killed so far in the invasion.
Yulia Yashenko, 28, said: “The city is being wiped off the face of the earth. Our house was burned by artillery. They fire everything at the city, every weapon is used.
“There is black smoke everywhere. There are bodies everywhere and there is nobody to collect them. It is only fate that we are alive. We could have been killed any time.
“People took us in their car out of the city on the green corridor [humanitarian corridor]. It should not be like this. Tell the world what is happening.”
Air raid warnings blared in Ivano-Frankivsk, 80 miles south of Lviv, but no attack came.
Ukrainian ballet star Artyom Datishin, 43, died having fought for his life for almost three weeks in hospital after being shelled by Russia in Kyiv in the opening days of the invasion. Artillery strikes hit a residential building in north Kyiv, killing at least one person.
Two were killed in the eastern city of Kramatorsk. And 21 people died near the north-east city of Kharkiv when Russian shelling destroyed a school and a community centre on Thursday.
At least 45 people died in missile strikes on a Ukrainian military base in Mykolaiv.
But the toll on Russia’s forces has been enormous – with as many as 30,000 troops taken out of action, either having been killed, injured or taken prisoner.
Moscow’s special forces 2nd Spetsnaz Brigade unit 64044 has lost 30 troops and suffered 80 injured, whilst a further 50 are missing in action. Ukraine believes 14,300 Russian troops have been killed since the invasion started.
As many as 450 Russian tanks have been blown up, 93 warplanes shot down and 112 helicopters destroyed, whilst 1,448 armoured personnel carriers have been knocked out.
Chief of Defence Intelligence, Lieutenant General Sir Jim Hockenhull, said Putin had adopted a new strategy to counter Ukrainian resilience.
He said: “Russia is now pursuing a strategy of attrition. This will involve the reckless and indiscriminate use of firepower. This will result in increased civilian casualties, destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure, and intensify the humanitarian crisis.
“Putin has reinforced his control over Russian domestic media to control the narrative, hide operational problems and obscure high Russian casualty numbers from the people.”
