Russia controls over 70 per cent of Ukraine’s Severodonetsk

Head of Ukraine’s Luhansk District Military Administration Serhiy Haidai has said that Russian troops control more than 70 per cent of Ukraine’s Severodonetsk city, and hostilities are underway in the city.

“The hostilities are so intensive that they can go on for days not even for the street, but only for one high-rise building,” Haidai said via telethon, according to UNIAN.

The head of the Luhansk District Military Administration noted that it is impossible to evacuate numerous people and deliver humanitarian aid because of the shelling.

“The military manages to evacuate only a few people a day. There are still about 500 residents of Severodonetsk at the Azot plant, 40 of them are children. The industrial area is intensively shelled via large-calibre artillery,” he added.

He said that Ukraine is negotiating the evacuation of civilians from the Azot plant in Severodonetsk.

“We are trying to agree, with the help of Irina Vereshchuk [minister of reintegration of temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine], to organise a corridor, however, the attempts are futile. Azot's shelters are not so strong as in Mariupol's Azovstal, so we should evacuate people by ensuring their security,” he said.

Haidai also added that there is no threat of encirclement of Ukrainian troops in the Luhansk region.