Russian attacks in Ukraine continue and dozens of refugees are rescued alive from the rubble of a theater

Ukraine denounced new Russian shelling of civilian targets, including an attack in the city of Chernigov that left 53 dead , while hundreds of refugees in a destroyed theater in the southern city of Mariupol on Wednesday began to be rescued from under the rubble . More than three weeks after the start of Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, the Russian armed forces have not ceased their offensive despite ongoing negotiations in which both parties highlight certain advances as a result of the dialogue. US President Joe Biden has raised the tone against his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin , by describing him as a “murderous dictator” .which authorized “inhuman” attacks against Ukraine, a qualification that the Kremlin called “unacceptable” .

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The Ukrainian government said in a statement that Russian artillery strikes destroyed a school and a community center in Merefa, a northeastern town near the large city of Kharkov, reporting that 21 people were killed and 25 wounded. Further north, the bodies of at least 53 people killed in Russian shelling have been taken to the Chernigov municipal morgue in recent hours, Chernigov governor Viacheslav Chaus said.

The port Mariupol has been one of the cities hardest hit by the conflict. On Wednesday local authorities said a Russian bomb hit a theater where hundreds of civilians were sheltering . Russia denied bombing the theater and said it was dynamited by the Azov Battalion , a militia made up of far-rightists, barrabravas and neo-Nazis integrated into the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This Thursday the Ukrainian Ombudsman said that the theater withstood the attack and that some 130 people were rescued alive .

Ukraine’s president, Volodimir Zelensky , accused Germany of having prioritized its economy over Kiev’s security and asked him not to let a new “wall” divide Europe. “Dear chancellor: tear down this wall, give Germany the leading role it deserves ,” Zelensky said, addressing German head of government, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Immediately afterwards, the president demanded that Germany support Ukraine’s entry into NATO and the European Union (EU). 

For his part, the president of the United States, Joe Biden , described his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin , as a “war criminal” . “He is a murderous dictator, a pure thug who is waging an immoral war against the people of Ukraine,” Biden said during a Congressional luncheon marking St. Patrick’s Day, Ireland’s patron saint. The response of the Russian government was immediate. ” We consider such rhetoric from the head of state, whose bombs have killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world, unacceptable and inexcusable ,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.