The civilians also refuse to leave the basement of the complex through the corridor opened by the Russian troops.
The separatist militias of the self-declared People’s Republic of Lugansk (LNR) accused Ukrainian troops defending the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk on Wednesday of “bursting” the evacuation of civilians from the plant. On Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the opening of a humanitarian corridor between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM to evacuate civilians from the Azot complex and facilitate the surrender of Ukrainian troops entrenched there.
During the day, however, no one has given up hope and the humanitarian corridor has only been used by a 74-year-old man. These are the data of the head of the garrison of the rebel militia of Lugansk, Alexander Nikishin, quoted by the Russian agencies. “This morning, around seven o’clock, a 74-year-old grandfather left there, he left alone. No one warned us in advance,” Nikishin said.
Already in the afternoon, separatist troops assured that the evacuation attempt “has been broken” by the Ukrainian army. In this way, the situation is increasingly resembling that at the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol, an almost impregnable bastion that took Russian and separatist troops two and a half months to reduce.
The mayor of Severodonetsk, Alexander Striuk, for his part, stated that “the Russians are trying to take the city from different directions. Taking into account that the bridges have been blown up, the enemy believes that they are putting psychological pressure on our soldiers (…), but we continue to defend the city and maintain the defense line».
When asked whether the units along with the civilians in Azot have already been besieged for blowing up the three bridges, Striuk replied that “the destruction of the bridges has complicated the situation and the escape routes are very dangerous, but they are there.” well, they are not completely blocked.
500 civilians and 400 soldiers
According to the mayor, they are now doing everything they can to set up the necessary logistics and “find more or less feasible solutions”. Striuk assured that the Ukrainian army “controls the industrial zone of Severodonetsk and the perimeter that allows the connection to Lisichansk”, the neighboring city that is a little further southwest, on the other side of the Seversky Donets River. It is estimated that there are about 500 civilians and 400 Ukrainian soldiers in the cellars of Azot.
The councilor insisted that “the fighting in the center of the city is still going on (…) it is a changing situation, with partial successes and sometimes even tactical waste.” Severodonetsk and Lisichansk are the last two cities defending Ukrainian forces in the Lugansk region. The rest of the enclave is already in the hands of the pro-Russian separatists and the troops called in by Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on his troops on Tuesday evening to hold out as much as possible in Severodonetsk. In his words, “it is vital to stay in Donbass (…) the defense of the region is essential to estimate who will dominate in the coming weeks” on the battlefield.
Source: La Verdad
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