Legal assessment
The Center for Spatial Technologies engaged the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) to conduct a legal analysis of the attack on the Mariupol Drama Theater. CST provided ECCHR with extensive research materials, primarily consisting of summaries of eyewitness accounts, as well as a technical assessment of the explosion. In addition, the analysis incorporated information from public sources, such as a report by Amnesty International and articles from the Associated Press, BBC, and the New York Times.
In response to our request, ECCHR has prepared a report to assess whether this attack constitutes an international crime according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which could result in individual criminal responsibility for those who carried it out.
The report concludes that the attack on the Mariupol Drama Theater is most likely a war crime committed by Russian forces, with evidence suggesting the deliberate targeting of this civilian humanitarian hub.
ECCHR’s report also underscores that despite Russian authorities denying responsibility and attributing the theater's destruction to Ukrainian forces in a supposed false flag operation, no evidence supports these claims. Contrarily, eyewitness accounts, expert analyses, and visual evidence collected inter alia by Amnesty International, the Associated Press, the BBC, and CST strongly indicate an airplane conducted an air strike with one or two 500kg bombs. ECCHR found that there is no substantiation for the counter-claim of an internal explosion orchestrated by Ukrainian forces, with all evidence and witness testimonies pointing towards an external airstrike by Russian forces.
ECCHR's legal analysis reveals strong evidence that the attackers knew the Mariupol Drama Theater was a civilian shelter and intentionally targeted it and the people inside. The theater was clearly marked with "CHILDREN" signs, indicating its civilian use and underscoring the attackers' responsibility to avoid civilian casualties. Reports confirm the strike was precisely executed with no military targets in the vicinity, indicating a deliberate choice to target the theater. The lack of military activity near the theater strengthens the conclusion that the attack was deliberately aimed at civilians and the theater, a civilian site, constituting a war crime.
Furthermore, ECCHR emphasizes that there are strong indications that the attack on the Mariupol Drama Theater also constituted a crime against humanity. In light of reports on the dramatic extent of air strikes harming civilians and civilian infrastructure and the siege of the city from early March on, there are grounds to believe that the attack on the Mariupol Drama Theater formed part of a widespread and systematic attack on the civilian population of Mariupol. While the report points out that a final assessment would call for more evidence, which is currently difficult to obtain due to the ongoing occupation of Mariupol, it holds that this question should be part of ongoing and future investigations.