The Red Cross warehouse in central Mariupol was hit by at least two military strikes, new satellite images from Maxar Technologies confirm.
On Wednesday, the Azov Battalion — a unit that began as an ultra-nationalist militia but has since integrated into the Ukrainian Armed Forces — claimed on their Telegram channel that the warehouse had been hit by Russian military strikes, posting an image of the larger complex as evidence.
CNN has obtained a satellite image from Maxar Technologies that confirms the allegation.
Citing additional imagery it captured, Maxar said the northern end of the warehouse was hit sometime between March 19-22. A second military strike, on the southern end of the building, occurred sometime between March 23-26.
Sensory satellite data from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System also confirmed that a number of explosions were detected in the vicinity on March 20 and every day between March 22-25.
International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson Jason Straziuso told CNN that it is a Red Cross warehouse.
“We do not have a team on the ground, so we have no other information, including on potential casualties or the extent of the damage,” Straziuso said. “We can say that we had already distributed all aid supplies in the warehouse.”
Liudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament commissioner for human rights, called for the “world community to condemn” the shelling of the building. “This is another war crime of the Russian army in accordance with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and a gross violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions,” she said.
There was no information on victims, Denisova added.
CNN has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defence for comment.
