Russia accused of war crimes after Mariupol theatre death toll put at 300

A local resident pushes a supermarket cart with his belongings as he flees Mariupol (Alexei Alexandrov/AP)

About 300 people were killed in the Russian air strike on a Mariupol theatre that was being used as a shelter, Ukrainian authorities said, in what would make it the war’s deadliest attack on civilians.

The bloodshed fuelled allegations that Moscow is committing war crimes by killing civilians, whether deliberately or by indiscriminate fire, with a Nato official saying Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war is “unprovoked, illogical and also barbarian”.