New Russian attack on Azot plant, from Severodonetsk
Kyiv, Jun 21 (EFE).- Russian troops attacked buildings and the entry control post at the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk, Lugansk, where several hundred civilians and military remain sheltered.
The Russians also fired on the facilities of a brick factory in the city and “fierce fighting continues in the industrial district” according to Serhii Haidai, Lugansk Military Administration head said Tuesday on his Telegram account.
Regional authorities said 568 civilians are sheltering at the Azot chemical plant, including 38 children. They are mostly the plant’s staff and their families, who refused to be evacuated.
An undisclosed number of Ukrainian military personnel also remain at the facility.
Haidai said several medical teams continue to work in one of the Severodonetsk hospitals, implying the entire city is not controlled by Russia, as Moscow claims, which could not be verified independently.
Russian forces also carried out assault operations around Severodonetsk, in the settlements of Komyshuvakha, Zolote and Hirske, approaching from various directions, and increased shelling on nearby Lisichansk, one of the cities the Russians are trying to control.
Haidai said the Lisichansk Military Administration head’s car, on its way to inspect the worst affected areas in the area, was attacked, although he did not specify if there were casualties.
Russian forces also opened fire on the three access bridges to the city of Severodonetsk to isolate it.
In the same region, Russian planes carried out air strikes on Ustynivka, Maloriazantseve, Bilohorivka and Hirske, as well as Mykolaivka.
More than 10 multi-story apartment buildings, private houses, and a police department building were damaged or destroyed as a result of Russian bombing.
One person has been found dead so far. A woman who sustained injuries was evacuated and hospitalized in Kramatorsk.
“Hirske has suffered severe destruction: 13 houses were affected there. In addition, seven houses were damaged in Novoivanivka and a secondary school was destroyed in Vrubivka,” according to the regional official.
Russian assault operations near Bila Hora and Syrotyne have so far been unsuccessful, he said.
Russia has intensified its attacks in recent days on the Lungansk and neighboring Donetsk regions, on the Russian border and where guerrillas close to Moscow operate.
The Klemlin tries to control these two regions to establish a corridor that allows its troops to move from the east to the south of Ukraine, where it already controls several regions after having occupied the Crimean peninsula in 2014. EFE
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