Do you remember when Russian forces committed a war crime and struck the Mariupol drama theater in Ukraine in March, killing hundreds of people?
Locals had written with the giant Cyrillic letters “Дети” – Russian for “children” – on forecourts on either side of the building, which would have been visible to Russian pilots.
Nevertheless, Russians bombed the theater shortly after 10 am on 16 March, producing a large explosion that caused the roof and vast portions of two main walls to collapse. At the time of the attack, hundreds of civilians were in and around the theater.
So in December, the Russians hid the ruins of the theater from the eyes of the surviving inhabitants of Mariupol, and they did it spectacularly.
There are decorative walls around the theater with portraits of famous representatives of “Great Russian culture,” such as Pushkin and Tolstoy.
With these decorative walls, the destroyed theater has become a true allegory: the crimes of Russia are hidden behind the inspired faces of famous writers because Russians always try to hide their crimes behind the banner of “great Russian culture.”