Hundreds feared trapped in Ukraine theatre hit by airstrike

Ukrainian authorities struggled to determine the fate of hundreds of civilians who had been sheltering in a theatre smashed by a Russian airstrike in the besieged city of Mariupol as officials said Russian artillery Thursday destroyed more civilian buildings in another front-line city.

Some hope emerged, as an official said some people had managed to survive the Mariupol theatre strike.

A photo released by Mariupol's city council showed that an entire section of the large, three-storey theatre had collapsed after the strike Wednesday evening. Several hundred people had taken refuge in the building's basement, seeking safety amid Russia's strangulating siege of the strategic Azov Sea port city.

At least as recently as Monday, the pavement in front of and behind the once-elegant theatre was marked with huge white letters spelling out "CHILDREN" in Russian, according to images released by the Maxar space technology company.

Rubble had buried the entrance to the shelter inside the theatre and the number of casualties was unclear, Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional administration, said on Telegram.

Ukrainian parliament member Sergiy Taruta, a former governor of the Donetsk region, where Mariupol is located, later said on Facebook that some people had managed to escape alive from the destroyed building. He did not provide any further details.

The BBC, after speaking to another member of parliament, Dmytro Gurin — whose parents are in the city — reported that the building was destroyed but a bomb shelter with many people in it survived.

Kyrylenko said Russian airstrikes also hit a municipal swimming pool complex in Mariupol where civilians, including women and children, had been sheltering. "Now there are pregnant women and women with children under the rubble there," he wrote, though the number of casualties was not immediately known.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for more help for his country in a video address to German lawmakers Thursday, saying thousands of people have been killed in the war that started almost a month ago, including 108 children.

He also referred to the dire situation in Mariupol. "Everything is a target for them," he said, including "a theatre where hundreds of people found shelter that was flattened yesterday."

The address began with a delay because of a technical problem caused by "an attack in the immediate vicinity" of where Zelensky was speaking from, Bundestag deputy speaker Katrin Goering-Eckardt said. Zelensky's address to the Bundestag came a day after he delivered a speech via video to the U.S. Congress that garnered several ovations as he called for more help.

The Russian defence ministry denied bombing the theatre or anywhere else in Mariupol on Wednesday.

Six nations have called for a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine on Thursday afternoon, ahead of an expected vote Friday on a Russian resolution demanding protection for Ukrainian civilians "in vulnerable situations," yet making no mention of Moscow's responsibility for the war.

"Russia is committing war crimes and targeting civilians," Britain's UN Mission tweeted, announcing the call for the meeting that was joined by the U.S., France and others. "Russia's illegal war on Ukraine is a threat to us all."