LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian troops control about 80% of the fiercely contested eastern Ukrainian city of Sieverodonetsk and have destroyed all three bridges leading out of the city but Ukrainian authorities are still trying to evacuate some wounded residents, a regional official said Tuesday.
Serhiy Haidai, governor of the eastern Luhansk region, acknowledged that a mass evacuation of civilians from Sieverodonetsk now is "simply not possible" due to the relentless shelling and fighting in the city . Ukrainian forces have been pushed to the industrial outskirts of the city because of "the scorched earth method and heavy artillery the Russians are using," he said.
"There is still an opportunity for the evacuation of the wounded, communication with the Ukrainian military and local residents," he told The Associated Press by telephone, adding that Russian forces have not yet blocked off the strategic city.
About 12,000 people remain in Sievierodonetsk compared to its pre-war population of 100,000. More than 500 civilians are sheltering in the Azot chemical plant, which is being relentlessly pounded by the Russians, according to Haidai.
In all, 70 civilians have been evacuated from the Luhansk region over the past 24 fours, the governor said.
A Russian general, meanwhile, says a humanitarian corridor will be opened Wednesday to evacuate civilians from the besieged Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk. Col-Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev said evacuees would be taken to the town of Svatovo, 35 miles to the north in territory under the control of Russian and separatist forces.
He said the plan was made after Ukraine called for establishing an evacuation corridor leading to Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Mizintsev, head of the National Defense Management Center, is accused by Ukraine of human rights violations while commanding troops during the long siege of Mariupol, Ukraine's key port on the Sea of Azov that has been taken over by the Russians.
Russian forces in the last few weeks have pressed hard to capture Ukraine's eastern Donbas area, which borders Russia and is made up of the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. It is the industrial heartland of the country.“The situation is difficult,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a news conference Tuesday with Danish media. “Our task is to fight back.”
"The situation is difficult," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelesnkyy said in a news conference on Tuesday with Danish media. "Our task is to fight back."
Jan Egeland, the Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the aid organizations supplying food to the people there, said the fighting of the past weeks have made regular food distribution impossible.
Now, he said, the remaining civilians in the city "are almost entirely cut off from aid supplies after the destruction of the last bridge.”
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday they had have received the bodies of 64 defenders of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol in the latest body swap with Russia.
The statement by the Ministry for Reintegration of Occupied Territories said the exchange took place in the Zaporizhzhia region, but didn't clarify how many bodies were returned to Russia.
It was one of the several body swaps the warring sides have conducted. Earlier this month Moscow and Kyiv exchanged 160 bodies each. Russian officials haven't commented on the exchanges, and there was no immediate confirmation from Moscow on the swap reported by Ukraine on Tuesday.
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Ukraine says its air defense system shot down two Russian cruise missiles targeting the southern Odesa region.