Site-Based Report: Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater in Mariupol, Ukraine

SITE-BASED REPORT: Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater in Mariupol, Ukraine

On 16 March 2022, Russia’s forces were widely reported to have bombed the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater (hereafter DARD Theater) in Mariupol, Ukraine. The DARD Theater was used as an air raid shelter during Russia’s siege of Mariupol, and hundreds of civilians were reported to have been sheltering inside it at the time of the bombing.[1] Multiple lines of evidence have been used to verify and analyze the damage to the DARD Theater at the time of the bombing and to assess changes to activity around the Theater before and after the bombing. This evidence includes: (1) conflict data from the Janes Intara database, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) database, and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports; (2) satellite imagery; (3) remote sensing data; (4) SAR-based image change detection data; (5) open-source information and images; (6) armed conflict and territorial control data; and (7) human mobility data. (See sections 1–7 for detailed discussion of each line of evidence.)

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CITE THIS REPORT: Gunter-Bassett, M., Cil, D., Tuttle, E., Welsh, W., Fitzgerald, K., Maher, A., Narimanova, N., Bender, T.J.P., Lawrence-Weilmann, J., Bassett, H., Aronson, J., Hanson, K., Daniels, B. I., and Wegener, C. (2023). “Site-Based Report: Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater in Mariupol, Ukraine,” Virginia Museum of Natural History, Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab; University of Maryland, Center for International Development and Conflict Management; University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Penn Cultural Heritage Center; and Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative. DOI: 10.25573/data.24421810.