The Russian media disseminate this information concerning the so-called "head of the investigative department of the Prosecutor General's Office" of the so-called DPR Oleksiy Kutsurubenko. Apparently, the Drama Theater was blown up not because of an airstrike but due to detonation inside a "caseless explosive device." It is not true.

On March 16, 2022, the Russian army carried out an airstrike on the building of the Donetsk Drama Theater in Mariupol, which was used as a bomb shelter during the city's blockade. Human Rights Watch reported that from 500 to 1,200 civilians were hiding there. At the entrances to the building, the signs "Children" were placed, which were visible from the sky, to indicate that civilians were hiding there.

Due to the constant shelling of the city, rescuers could not free people from the rubble in time. On Friday, March 25, the Mariupol City Council reported that about 300 people died under the ruins of the drama theater. Amnesty International recognized the air strike on the drama theater as a Russian war crime. The organization also noted in its report that it is impossible to establish the exact number of victims since it is unknown how many were under the rubble. The report also notes that the Russians prevented residents and independent journalists from accessing the debris. The Russians cleared the territory with a bulldozer and removed the bodies of the dead without registration. The authorities of Mariupol reported the same, assuming that the Russians act this way to hide the number of victims of the crime. Video of the destroyed drama theater.

The version about the "explosion from the middle" was previously spread concerning the alleged German journalist Thomas Reper, who turned out to be a pro-Russian blogger from Saint Petersburg. Russian propagandists systematically use fakes to hide the war crimes of the Russian army.