Ukrainian units in Seyerodonetsk continue to resist. According to authorities, the defenders are still controlling the Azot factory, where hundreds of civilians are hiding. Meanwhile, Kyiv reports repelled attacks by Russian troops on the Bakhmut transport hub.
In eastern Ukraine, fighting continues for the city of Sievjerodonetsk in the Luhansk region. The situation there is the worst in the whole country, said the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hajdaj, in a video address. “It’s impossible to count the shelling.”
Many towns in the region are under fire, Hajdaj said. The situation in the town of Toschkivka, south of the administrative center of Sievjerodonetsk, is particularly difficult. There the Russian attackers tried to break through a defensive line. In part, the Ukrainian armed forces managed to stop the enemy.
In Sieverodonetsk, the Azot chemical plant was shelled, Hajdaj said. However, the industrial site is still under Ukrainian control. “Azot is not blocked. Fighting is taking place in the streets next to the factory,” Hajdaj said on TV. The pro-Russian separatists had previously announced that civilians who had sought shelter in the industrial plant’s bunkers had left the factory premises.
According to Hajdaj, many people have gone to bunkers because Russian troops are targeting residential areas with heavy artillery. “Everyone probably wants to flee now, but there is currently no such option,” said Hajdaj. According to Ukrainian information, around 800 people have fled to safety in several bunkers below the Azot plant, including around 200 employees of the plant and 600 residents of the city.
According to the Ukrainian general staff in Kyiv, Russian troops have been pushed back in the area of ??the important traffic junction of Bakhmut during the fighting in the Donbass. Up to 150 attackers were “destroyed”. This information cannot be verified independently. The general staff in Kyiv reported a large number of fighting in the east of the country, including especially in the Sloviansk region in the Donetsk region. Again and again there are airstrikes against civilian infrastructure, it said.
