Russia controls over 80% of the city, and a victory would strengthen its hold on the vital Donbas region.
This morning, Russia requested that Ukrainian forces holed up in a chemical factory in Severodonetsk lay down their arms and surrender.
It occurs as Moscow’s forces inch closer to seizing control of the strategically significant city – one of the remaining in the Donbas region they have not yet captured.
More than 500 civilians and an undetermined number of soldiers are reportedly trapped in Azot, a chemical factory where they have taken refuge from a Russian bombardment that has left much of the city in ruins, according to Ukraine.
The head of Russia’s National Defense Management Centre, Mikhail Mizintsev, told that Ukrainian troops should “cease their stupid resistance and lay down their arms” at 6 a.m. UK time on Monday.
He vowed that residents will be able to evacuate through a humanitarian corridor, even though two of the three bridges leading out of the city have been damaged and the third is unsafe.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk, stated that the population in Azot “can no longer endure being in the shelters; their mental health is on the brink.
The situation resembles the battle for Mariupol’s Azovstal steel complex, where hundreds of fighters and civilians hid until their surrender in May. In this case, the Ukrainian soldiers remain in Russian custody.
Mr. Haidai stated that the Russians control approximately 80% of Severodonetsk, and he told the Associated Press that a mass evacuation of people was “just not possible” at this time.
Approximately 12,000 people remain in Severodonetsk, which had a pre-war population of 100,000.
• A senior US defense source told Foreign Policy magazine that Russia’s options are constrained because Vladimir Putin refuses to declare war on Ukraine formally. The Russian president continues to refer to the invasion as a “special military operation,” which prohibits him from recruiting soldiers from the ordinary populace.
• The grain harvest has begun in Odesa, but Russia’s invasion will cause a global wheat shortage for at least three seasons, according to Ukraine’s agriculture minister. • There are reports of overnight shelling in the Kharkiv region, where, for the first time in many weeks, Russian forces appear to have made small gains, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
Losses in certain regions of Ukraine are “painful.”
Tuesday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the casualties in Severodonetsk and the northeastern city of Kharkiv as “terrible.”
“However, we must persevere – this is our state,” he concluded.
According to Ukraine, between 100 and 200 of its soldiers are killed every day, and hundreds more are injured. Russia has not provided estimates, although it is believed that its losses are similarly substantial.
Lysychansk, the twin city of Severodonetsk, is the other major city in Luhansk that is still under Ukrainian control; nevertheless, the loss of the bridges makes travel between the two cities difficult, and fighters risk being encircled by the Russians.
Ukraine persists in pleading with Western powers for additional weapons to defend its remaining territory in the Donbas, which includes Luhansk and Donetsk.
In recent weeks, Russia claims to have destroyed several weapons shipments from the United States and Europe.
