Russia-Ukraine war: Mariupol school sheltering over 400 people attacked as war rages on

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues on the 25th day, the Ukrainian authorities have stated that Russian troops bombarded an art school in Mariupol where more than 400 people had taken shelter. Local authorities suggest that Mariupol's G12 art school had been destroyed while women, children, and the elderly were inside. No casualties were reported at the time. Earlier on Wednesday, a bomb exploded in a Mariupol theatre, with 1,300 people inside.

Mariupol is an important port in Ukraine on the Azov Sea, and it has been bombarded for at least three weeks and has witnessed some of the greatest horrors. The report suggests that at least 2,300 people have been killed, some of whom had to be buried in mass graves. Food, water and electricity have run out in the city.

Russia's forces kidnapping Mariupol residents and transporting them to Russia

As Moscow claimed on Sunday that it had launched a second hypersonic missile on Ukraine, the Human rights spokesman of Ukraine, Lyudmyla Denisova, accused Russia's forces of kidnapping Mariupol civilians and transporting them to Russia, according to the Guardian. Denisova stated that several thousand Mariupol citizens have been deported to Russia in recent days and that the abductions and forced displacements violated the Geneva Conventions and the European Convention on Human Rights. She urged the international community to react and strengthen sanctions against the Russian Federation.

The local report has stated that at least 20 babies carried by Ukrainian surrogate mothers are stranded in a bomb shelter in Kyiv, waiting for their parents to pick them up amid war. The newborns are being cared for by nurses who are unable to leave the shelter due to shelling by Russian troops attempting to encircle the city, according to NPR News. In the meanwhile, Sumy evacuated 71 orphaned children via a humanitarian corridor, as the regional governor Dmytro Zhyvytskyy said on Sunday.

3.3 million people have fled Ukraine

Authorities claimed on Sunday that a total of 6,623 civilians were evacuated on Saturday in humanitarian corridors, including 4,000 from Mariupol. UN claims that more than 3.3 million people have fled Ukraine to escape the Russian onslaught, creating Europe's fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II, with another 6.5 million likely to be internally displaced.

Image: AP