Ukraine in control of Sievierodonetsk plant sheltering hundreds, governor says

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine stays in charge of the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk the place a whole lot of civilians are sheltering, the area’s governor stated on Saturday, after a Russia-backed separatist claimed 300 to 400 Ukrainian fighters had been additionally trapped there.

“The details about the blockade of the Azot plant is a lie,” Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the Luhansk area partially managed by pro-Russian separatists, stated on the Telegram messaging app.

“Our forces are holding an industrial zone of Sievierodonetsk and are destroying the Russian military within the city,” he wrote.

Sievierodonetsk, a small metropolis within the area, has turn into the main target of Russia’s advance in japanese Ukraine and one of many bloodiest flashpoints in a conflict now into its fourth month.

Ukraine has stated some 800 folks had been hiding in a number of bomb shelters beneath the Azot plant, together with about 200 workers and 600 residents of Sievierodonetsk.

Rodion Miroshnik, a Russian-backed consultant of the self-proclaimed Luhansk Individuals’s Republic, stated late on Saturday that some civilians had began to go away.

“There are occasional exchanges of fireplace. … They (the Ukrainian defenders) should be holding a number of hundred civilians hostage,” he stated in an internet submit. Reuters was not instantly capable of confirm his account.

Miroshnik had earlier stated 300 to 400 Ukrainian fighters had been blockaded on the grounds of the plant together with civilians and had tried to barter their passage to Lysychansk, Sievierodonetsk’s twin metropolis.

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets in Kyiv, Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Enhancing by Jason Neely and Jonathan Oatis)