Fears were growing last night for more than 1,000 people thought still buried in the rubble of the Ukrainian theatre targeted by Russian bombs.
The rescue effort has been severely hampered as most of the port city of Mariupol’s emergency services have been destroyed and many of its doctors killed.
Just a few more survivors emerged from the ruins yesterday – one with serious injuries – following Wednesday’s attack.
As many as 1300 people, mostly women and children, are thought to have been in the basement sheltering from raids, and only around 130 have been able to get out so far.
Local politician Serhiy Taruta warned that hundreds of potential survivors will die instead, simply because there is nobody in the besieged city 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 that 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 those thought to be in the building.
Yesterday Russian troops renewed assaults on Ukraine’s cities, shelling residential buildings and infrastructure.
Mariupol is now believed to be 90 per cent destroyed. Some of its residents have resorted to escaping the blockade on foot as official evacuation efforts have mostly failed due to the shelling.
In all, 9145 people were evacuated from cities through agreed humanitarian corridors yesterday.
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 aviation repair complex near Lviv airport, wounding one person.
Two missiles fired at the city were downed by air defence systems and huge smoke plumes billowed into the air.
The first refugees from Mariupol also arrived in Lviv, where activists yesterday lined up 109 prams to highlight the number of children killed so far in the invasion.
Yulia Yashenko, 28, said: “Mariupol 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 in Kyiv.
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 died near the north-east city of Kharkiv when shelling destroyed a school and a community centre on Thursday.
At least 45 people died in missile strikes on a 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, while 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 planes shot down and 112 helicopters destroyed, while 1448 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 infrastructure, and will 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.”
