Last route out of Sievierodonetsk falls as Russian artillery pounds city

By Natalia Zinets and Abdelaziz Boumzar

KYIV/BAKHMUT, Ukraine (Reuters) – Russian forces tightened their grip on the japanese Ukrainian metropolis of Sievierodonetsk and minimize off the final routes for evacuating residents, a Ukrainian official mentioned on Monday – a scene that echoed Moscow’s assault on Mariupol final month.

Amid heavy Russian bombardment, regional governor Sergei Gaidai mentioned on social media that every one bridges out of town had been destroyed, making it not possible to usher in humanitarian cargoes or evacuate residents.

He mentioned some “entry” remained and a part of town was nonetheless beneath Ukrainian management.

“They’ve the power to ship the wounded to hospitals, so there’s nonetheless entry,” he informed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian service. “It is onerous to ship weapons or reserves. Tough, however not not possible.”

Ukraine has issued more and more pressing requires extra Western heavy weapons to assist defend Sievierodonetsk, which Kyiv says may maintain the important thing to the battle for the japanese Donbas area and the course of the struggle, now in its fourth month.

“The battles are so fierce that preventing for not only a road however for a single high-rise constructing can final for days,” Gaidai mentioned earlier. He’s governor of the Luhansk area that features Sievierodonetsk.

Russian artillery fireplace pummelled the Azot chemical plant, the place hundred of civilians had been sheltering, he mentioned.

“About 500 civilians stay on the grounds of the Azot plant in Sievierodonetsk, 40 of them are youngsters. Generally the navy manages to evacuate somebody,” he mentioned.

‘SURRENDER OR DIE’

Russia’s RIA information company quoted a pro-Moscow separatist spokesperson, Eduard Basurin, as saying Ukrainian troops had been successfully blockaded in Sievierodonetsk and may give up or die.

Ukraine’s account of civilians trapped in an industrial plant echoed the autumn of Mariupol final month, the place lots of of civilians and badly wounded Ukrainian troopers had been trapped for weeks within the Azovstal steelworks.

Russia has denied focusing on civilians in what it calls a “particular operation” to revive Russian safety and “denazify” its neighbour. Ukraine and its Western allies name this a baseless pretext for an invasion which has killed hundreds of civilians and raised fears of wider battle in Europe.

Greater than 5 million individuals have fled the assault and tens of millions extra are threatened by a worldwide power and meals disaster on account of disrupted gasoline, oil and grain provides from Russia and Ukraine. Western nations are divided over how finest to finish it.

Gaidai mentioned a six-year-old youngster was amongst these killed within the newest shelling of Lysychansk. Officers within the Russian-backed separatist-controlled Donetsk area mentioned not less than three individuals, together with a baby, had been killed and 18 had been wounded by Ukrainian shelling that hit a market in Donetsk metropolis.

The Donetsk Information Company confirmed footage of burning stalls on the central Maisky market and several other our bodies on the bottom. The information company mentioned 155-mm calibre NATO-standard artillery munitions hit components of the area on Monday.

Reuters couldn’t independently confirm both report.

BURNING CROPS

After failing to take the capital Kyiv following the Feb. 24 invasion, Moscow centered on increasing management within the Donbas, which comprise Luhansk and neighbouring Donetsk and the place pro-Russian separatists have held territory since 2014, whereas additionally attempting to seize extra of Ukraine’s Black Beach.

Alongside the entrance line within the Donbas, the preventing poses a brand new risk because the climate warms, with shelling and rocket fireplace setting fields on fireplace and destroying ripening crops.

Lyuba, a resident within the Ukrainian-held pocket of the Donbas close to the entrance, watched a hearth blazing alongside the fields however mentioned she was not planning to depart. “The place can I’m going? Who’s ready for me there?” she mentioned. “It is scary. However it’s what it’s.”

Ukrainian Presidential Adviser Mykhailo Podolyak listed gear he mentioned was wanted for heavy weapons parity, together with 1,000 howitzers, 500 tanks and 1,000 drones.

“We’re ready for a choice,” he mentioned, including that Western defence ministers would meet on Wednesday in Brussels.

Russia issued the newest of a number of current studies saying it had destroyed U.S. and European arms and gear, hoping to ship the message that delivering extra could be futile.

The defence ministry mentioned high-precision air-based missiles had struck close to the railway station in Udachne northwest of Donetsk, hitting gear that had been delivered to Ukrainian forces. There was no instant phrase from the Ukrainian aspect.

Moscow has criticised america and different nations for sending Ukraine weapons, threatening to strike new targets if the West provided long-range missiles.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Michael Perry, Philippa Fletcher and Alex Richardson; Enhancing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Peter Graff and Toby Chopra)