Ukraine reports 300 dead in airstrike on Mariupol theater

By NEBI QENA and ANDREA ROSA
Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities say about 300 people were killed in the Russian airstrike last week that blasted open a Mariupol theater. That would make it the war’s deadliest known attack on civilians yet. Meanwhile, Russian forces appear to have halted, at least for now, their ground offensive aimed at capturing the capital, Kyiv, and are concentrating more on the fighting for control of the Donbas region in the country’s southeast. That is according to a senior U.S. defense official. The bloodshed in Mariupol is fueling allegations Moscow has committed war crimes by killing civilians, whether deliberately or by indiscriminate fire.