Children among 44 severely wounded people trapped in Ukraine’s Chernihiv city – mayor

LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) – The mayor of Ukraine’s northern metropolis of Chernihiv mentioned on Saturday 44 severely wounded folks, together with three kids, couldn’t be evacuated to safer areas for remedy because the metropolis had been reduce off by Russian forces.

Town close to the Belarusian border has been successfully surrounded, native authorities mentioned on Friday, warning that it had grow to be not possible to evacuate civilians or usher in humanitarian help as a result of a bridge linking the town to Ukraine’s capital to the south had been destroyed by bombing.

Talking on nationwide tv, Chernihiv Mayor Vladyslav Atroshenko mentioned the state of affairs was significantly essential for 44 wounded folks needing emergency remedy.

“They cannot survive right here because of the severity of their wounds, they want pressing evacuation,” he mentioned.

He mentioned there have been nonetheless as much as 130,000 folks with out heating, electrical energy or water provides in Chernihiv, which he mentioned was below heavy bombardment by Russian forces. Town had a pre-war inhabitants of round 290,000, he mentioned.

Reuters couldn’t independently affirm his accounts.

On Friday, Russia’s defence ministry mentioned Russian forces had “blocked” Ukrainian cities, together with Chernihiv, to tie down the Ukrainian army whereas Russia centered on taking management within the jap Donbass area.

Russia has denied concentrating on civilians since its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, which it calls a “particular army operation.”

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets, Writing by Alessandra Prentice, Modifying by Timothy Heritage)