Some 30,000 evacuees from Mariupol, Ukraine, this week (authorities)

Some 30,000 people left the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in a week, besieged by Russian forces, said local authorities, who explained that they still do not know the balance of Wednesday's bombing of a theater where civilians had taken refuge.

According to a message from the mayor's office published on Telegram, “about 30,000 people left by their own means of transport” and “80% of the city's homes were destroyed.”

The City Council added in that message that it was “finding information about the victims” of the bombing of the theater.

Although 30,000 people may have been evacuated to Zaporiyia or Berdyansk through humanitarian corridors, another 350,000 are still in that southeastern city and “continue to hide in shelters and basements,” the mayor's office said.

Russian planes drop every day, on average, “50 to 100 bombs” on the city, the source pointed out. The outskirts of Mariupol are the scene of fighting, he added.

Local authorities said they do not know the balance of Wednesday's bombing of a theater in Mariupol, where, according to them, there were “hundreds of people, mostly women, children and the elderly.”

“Yesterday and today, despite the incessant shooting, the removal of rubble and rescue operations continue as far as possible,” the mayor's office explained.

The Russian Ministry of Defense denied that it had bombed the theater and accused the Ukrainian nationalist battalion Azov, who had already been charged with a bombing of a maternity clinic in Mariupol last week, of the explosion.

More than 2,000 civilians have been killed in that besieged and bombed city for days, according to local authorities.

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