“Airstrike on the Drama Theater. Black and white people covered in blood. A girl yells, “Dad is there, help!”

Together with his mother, Artur witnessed how on March 16, 2022, a Russian plane dropped two air bombs on the Mariupol Drama Theater. At that moment, they were on Theater Square and barely had time to cross the road and hide behind the fence. Before that, the guy survived several air strikes on the building where he was hiding. 

“A plane flew over people standing in queue for water. It was scary. But there was no choice. On March 10, I went to a friend’s house to help board up the windows. They were knocked out by the shock wave. But there was another airstrike. The door fell on me. Concussion. The front door arched into the apartment. The house shook. A woman died. I remember the bombing of the center. It was scary to walk around. Everything was on fire everywhere. Snow was melting. We collected rainwater. There was plastic and burnt dust in it. We boiled and drank it,” recalls Mariupol resident, Artur.