The russians are preparing to publish a pseudo-investigation into the bombing the Mariupol Drama Theatre to pin responsibility for their crime on Ukraine, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry's Main Directorate of Intelligence.
"The purpose of this is to try to absolve itself of responsibility for the killing of several hundred civilians who were hiding in the premises of the theatre at the time of the strike. Most of them were women and children," the intelligence said.
According to the intelligence service, staged videos are being prepared with the help of several film crews of Russian TV channels, which "should prove" that the explosion in the theatre took place inside the building. All the destruction allegedly took place "as a result of the detonation of a large quantity of explosives" and the number of victims was no more than 14. Russian propagandists even found so-called "witnesses" who had seen "men in military uniforms carrying boxes" into the building the day before.
"Meanwhile, the bombing of the Mariupol Drama Theatre was and remains one of the worst war crimes committed by the russian occupiers during the war they unleashed. Two 500kg aerial bombs were deliberately dropped on the theatre by Russian aircraft. Up to 1,000 civilians were inside at the time of the strike. The overwhelming majority were women and children who were hiding from Russian shelling," the intelligence service said.
The Mariupol Drama Theatre, which was used as a bomb shelter, was bombed by Russian aircraft on 16 March, killing at least 300 civilians.
The Russian occupying troops closed occupied Mariupol for exit and entry to carry out "filtration" measures from Friday and to Monday morning, 25 July.