Commemorations held across Czech Republic to honor Ukrainian victims of Mariupol Theater bombing

Candle vigils were held last night in Prague and many other Czech cities to mark the fourth anniversary of the deadly bombing of the Mariupol Theater, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

In Prague, the National Theater joined Hlas Ukrajiny (Voice of Ukraine) NGO and the Association of Professional Theaters to organize a remembrance event attended by several dozen people, including refugees from Mariupol and the Ukrainian ambassador in the Czech Republic Vasyl Zvarych.

Candles were lit and used to create the word ‘Дети’ (meaning children) on the rooftop terrace of the National Theater’s historic building - a symbol in itself, as it was on the Mariupol Theater's rooftop that Russian bombs fell four years ago.

Participants sang the Ukrainian national anthem and held a minute of silence in memory of the hundreds of people, including children, who died as a result of the Russian air strikes.

Similar commemorations were held in theaters across the Czech Republic, including in Brno, České Budějovice, Pardubice, Liberec, Olomouc, Pilsen, Jihlava and Ostrava.

In the early weeks of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, hundreds of civilians took refuge in the theater of Mariupol, besieged by Russian military forces. A Russian air strike hit the building on March 16, 2022, despite the word ‘Дети’ appearing on the façade to warn of the presence of children inside the building.

Initial estimates had put the death toll at about 300, but an AP investigation found that the number of victims in and around the theater could be twice as high.

The months-long siege of Mariupol, and especially the bombing of its theater, has come to represent one of the most tragic symbols of the brutality of Russian forces in Ukraine.

Commemorations have been held annually in Prague and other Czech cities, with organizers reminding that the attack has still not been properly investigated, and that the exact number of victims remains unclear.

The destruction of the theater, and gala-worthy re-opening last December under Russian occupation, is both seen as an attempt to cover up evidence of war crimes and symbolic of the Russification policy of Moscow-appointed forces in occupied regions.

Around 15,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, according to the UN High Commission for Human Rights, including over 700 children. Another 41,000 have been injured, with 2025 being the deadliest of the past four years for civilians.