Ukraine’s Severodonetsk ‘Fully Occupied’ By Russian Forces After Weeks Of Fighting: Reports

New Delhi: The japanese Ukrainian metropolis of Severodonetsk has been “totally occupied” by the Russian military, the mayor mentioned on Saturday, after weeks of preventing, information company AFP reported. “The town has been totally occupied by the Russians,” AFP quoted mayor Oleksandr Striuk as saying.

“The (Russians) appointed a commandant. However the metropolis is so destroyed that it will likely be tough for individuals to deal with this example,” a report by CNN quoted the mayor as saying.

Notably, the Ukrainian military on Friday mentioned that it could withdraw its forces from the town having round 100,000 inhabitants earlier than the battle in a bid to defend the neighbouring metropolis of Lysychansk.

Striuk mentioned that civilians had began to evacuate the Azot chemical plant the place a number of hundred individuals had been hiding from Russian shelling.

“These individuals have spent nearly three months of their lives in basements, shelters. That is powerful emotionally and bodily,” he mentioned, including that these individuals now want medical and psychological assist.

In response to the native army officers, the final troops deployed within the metropolis needed to go away because it was tough to maintain defending their positions.

A senior army commander mentioned that the choice to evacuate the town needed to be taken “as a result of the variety of useless in unfortified territories might develop on a regular basis…it is unnecessary to remain,” CNN reported.

In the meantime, after studies of missile firing right into a northern border area, Ukraine accused Russia of dragging Belarus into the continuing battle in Kyiv.

“Missile strikes from the territory of Belarus are a largescale provocation of the Russian Federation as a way to additional contain Belarus within the battle towards Ukraine,” Defence Ministry’s Major Intelligence Directorate mentioned, CNN reported.