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Officials in Ukraine said that around 300 people were killed in a Russian airstrike that targeted a theater where people were sheltering.
"The Drama Theater in the heart of Mariupol has always been the hallmark of the city," the Mariupol City Council. said in a statement. "Now there is no more Drama theatre. In its place, a new point of pain for Mariupol residents appeared, ruins that became the last refuge for hundreds of innocent people."
There were about 1,000 people inside the Donetsk Regional Theatre of Drama, which was being used as a bomb shelter as Russian forces shelled the city. The city council said it made the determination by speaking with witnesses and survivors of the attack.
They accused Russia of committing a terrorist act by targeting the theater, which was marked with the Russian word for children.
"We didn't want to believe in this horror," the statement continued. "But the words of those who were inside the building at the moment of this terrorist act say the opposite."
"[They] knew what the consequences might be, and yet the bombs fell on a place that had become a refuge for hundreds of Mariupol residents. There can be no explanation for this inhuman cruelty," the council added. "There will never be forgiveness for those who brought destruction, pain, and suffering to our home."