Russia’s demolition of the Mariupol theater and the alleged removal of bodies could be a sign they’re trying to ‘hide’ their war crime, witnesses believe

Ukrainian witnesses to the deadly Mariupol theater strike earlier this year believe the ongoingdemolitionof the building, which was serving as a bomb shelter for hundreds of people, including many children, may be evidence of Russia’s attempts to “hide” the extent of their war crimes in the embattled city.

An Associated Press investigation found that roughly 600 people were killed in the March airstrike nearly double the previous death toll cited making it the single deadliest attack on civilians in the war thus far. The outlet used witness accounts from 23 survivors, rescuers, and people familiar with the building as a shelter to recreate what happened inside the theater that day.

On March 16, Russian forces bombed the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater in Mariupol in a shocking attack that quickly garnered international condemnation. Ukraine’s government has opened a war crimes investigation in the aftermath of the strike, according to the AP.

In addition to being used as a bomb shelter, the theater became a gathering point for people hoping to be on hand for the start of evacuations out of the besieged city, the outlet reported. About a week before the attack, a set designer with the theater used white paint to write the word “CHILDREN” in Cyrillic letters outside the building on two sides in an effort to prevent a bombing.

Survivors estimated that there were around 1,000 people inside the theater at the moment of impact, but many told the outlet that only about 200 people were seen escaping. All the witnesses said at least 100 people were holed up in a field kitchen right outside, none of whom survived the blast, according to the AP.

Prior to the attack, people in the theater avoided congregating on the theater’s stage, which sat directly below a domed ceiling, which witnesses said felt like a “bullseye.” Instead, dogs and cats were kept on the stage, which ultimately became the strike target everyone feared, the AP reported.

Pregnant women who had fled the deadly airstrike on a maternity hospital in Mariupolearlier in the month, along with families with young children were given extra space in the theater’s dressing rooms on the second floor right behind the stage a generous act that would prove fatal.

According to the outlet, as of May, the theater is completely demolished as Russian forces control the area around it. An AP video shows heavy equipment further destroying the remaining rubble, while Russian state media reportedly shows no bodies still inside the ruins, despite what witnesses described.

The lack of visible bodies led some witnesses to speculate that the hundreds of dead bodies were either pulverized or removed by Russian soldiers, the AP reported. Experts told the outlet that witness testimony will be all the more important in any future investigations into the attack.

“They came not to capture the city they came to destroy it,” Maria Kutnyakova, a survivor of the bombing told the AP. “They are trying to hide how many people actually died in Mariupol,hide their crimes.”

The city council said Russian leadership “ordered the destruction of any evidence of crimes committed by its army in Mariupol” following outrage over hundreds of civilian deaths in Bucha. Satellite images from last month show at least two sites of mass graves outside Mariupol.