russia has released yet another propaganda product — a pseudo-documentary film titled “Witnesses,” in which it cynically attempts to rewrite the history of the destruction of the Mariupol Drama Theatre. This was stated by Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights.
For the filming, the russians used the very stage of the rebuilt theatre — the same place under which the bodies of the deceased Mariupol residents remained after the strike. This is not just a lie. This is desecration of the memory of the victims and an attempt to turn the crime scene into a backdrop for its denial.
On March 16, 2022, the theatre served as a shelter for hundreds of civilians — children, women, and the elderly. In front of the building, there was a clearly visible inscription from the air: “CHILDREN.” The enemy knew that civilians were inside. And yet they dropped bombs. Hundreds of lives were cut short in an instant. An investigation by the Associated Press uncovered evidence that the attack claimed the lives of about 600 people inside and outside the building. And many survivors cited an even higher number.An independent investigation by Amnesty International unequivocally established that the most likely cause of the theatre’s destruction was a deliberate russian airstrike, likely carried out with two 500-kilogram bombs. The nature of the destruction fully corresponds to the detonation of aerial bombs that pierced the roof of the building.
The narrative of an “internal explosion” is not the result of any investigation. russia began spreading this version even before the strike, preparing the informational ground in advance. After the tragedy, this lie merely gained new actors playing the role of “witnesses.”
I have sent letters to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, the International Criminal Court, Amnesty International, UNESCO, the European Parliament, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, calling on them to provide an assessment of russia’s latest attempt to falsify the circumstances of the destruction of the Mariupol Drama Theatre and to take this information campaign into account in the further documentation of russian crimes.I call for placing on the political agenda of the European Union the issue of russia’s systematic attempts, through propaganda and disinformation, to deny and distort the circumstances of documented war crimes, as well as considering the possibility of adding to the EU sanctions lists those individuals, media outlets, and other entities involved in systematic campaigns to falsify and deny russian war crimes.
The Mariupol Drama Theatre is a crime scene, not a backdrop for russian propaganda.
russia may build new walls over the site of the tragedy. But it will not be able to build a wall between truth and the world. Because the evidence remains. The testimonies remain. The memory of the people remains. And no russian propaganda film will change that.
