Russian forces have bombed a Mariupol art school where 400 residents were sheltering, the city’s council has said.

In a statement posted on the Telegram channels of Mariupol council and the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada, the council said women, children and elderly people were inside and “are still under the rubble” of the destroyed G12 art school in the city’s Left Bank district. The number of casualties was unclear.

The message accused the Russians of committing war crimes, echoing president Zelensky’s earlier video address. In his late night broadcast, Zelenskiy said the siege of Mariupol would “go down in history of responsibility for war crimes”.

“To do this to a peaceful city... is a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come.”

Mariupol, a strategic port on the Azov Sea, has been under bombardment for at least three weeks and has seen some of the worst horrors of the war in Ukraine. At least 2,300 people have died, some of whom had to be buried in mass graves, and food, water and electricity have run low.