Russian forces have surrounded almost entirely Severodonetsk, the mayor of the Ukrainian city in the eastern Luhansk region said today, quoted by AFP.
Severodonetsk is one of the most important cities in Donbass, which remains under the control of the Ukrainian authorities, BTA reports.
Severodonetsk is “almost surrounded,” Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk told Ukrainian television. He added that the Russian army and pro-Russian separatists were trying to attack the city from several directions.
Many of Severodonetsk’s approximately 100,000 residents have already been evacuated. However, 15,000 locals are refusing to leave the city, Stryuk said. “We manage to persuade only ten people to leave a day,” he added.
Severodonetsk and its nearby twin city, Lisichansk, have been under fire from Russian forces for several weeks, and the front line is steadily approaching, AFP reported. Kramatorsk, which has become the administrative center of the part of Donbass that remained under Ukrainian control since the 2014 outbreak of the separatist conflict, is nearly 80 kilometers to the west.
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