(Left): The Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater in Mariupol, Ukraine, shown here in May 2021, a year before Russia’s full-scale invasion, is the city’s cultural center and most famous building. © 2021 Oleksandr Malyon. (Right): Russian airstrikes in March 2022 killed at least 15 of the hundreds of civilians sheltering in the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater in Mariupol. Those civilians had sought to warn Russian forces of their presence by painting дети (deti or “children”) in front of the theater. The bombs, which gutted the theater, also destroyed a significant piece of cultural heritage.
© 2022 Reuters