Ukrainian authorities say they are continuing to evacuate civilians from Severodonetsk during every “quiet” moment, after the three main bridges out of the eastern city were destroyed by Russian shelling.
As fighting raged on for control of the city, local authorities said they still had ways to evacuate people, though it was not immediately clear what route the Ukrainian military was using.
“The ways to connect with the city are quite difficult, but they exist,” Oleksandr Struik, the head of the Severodonetsk military administration, told Ukrainian television, adding that evacuations were taking place “every minute when it is quiet there, or there is a possibility of transportation”.
“Russian troops are trying to storm the city, but the military is holding firm,” he added. Russia is believed to control about 70 per cent of the city.
Mr Struik said about 500 civilians continued to shelter in the city’s Azot chemical plant, where it is feared a scenario similar to that in the southern port city of Mariupol, where hundreds of people were trapped for weeks in the Azovstal steelworks, could play out.
A senior Russian commander said Russian forces were ready to open up a humanitarian corridor on Wednesday morning to evacuate civilians from the Azot plant to Svatove, a city north of Severodonetsk controlled by pro-Russian forces.
Col Gen Mikhail Mizintsev, the officer who was in charge of the devastating siege of Mariupol, said Ukraine asked the Russian side to help organise a humanitarian corridor to Lysychansk, a neighbouring city controlled by Ukraine on the other side of the Siverskyi Donets river from Severodonetsk, but that Russia’s defence ministry regarded Ukraine’s request as an attempt to save its encircled units.
Ukraine has not yet commented on the reported humanitarian corridor. It has previously accused Russia of violating ceasefire agreements.
The Russian army has shifted the bulk of its military efforts to capturing Severodonetsk in its attempt to take full control of Luhansk and Donetsk, collectively known as Donbas. The fight for Severodonetsk is turning into one of the war’s bloodiest battles and is seen as a potential turning point in Russia’s advances in the Donbas.
During his nightly address on Monday, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said: “We are dealing with absolute evil. And we have no choice but to move forward and free our territory. The human cost of this battle is very high for us. It is simply terrifying.”
Pro-Russian separatists and Russian news agencies reported that several Ukrainian artillery strikes on Donetsk city - which Russia controls – killed a child and injured several others.
Answering a question from Danish journalists on Tuesday, Mr Zelenskiy said Ukraine “wasn’t interested” in targeting Russian civilians. “We are not terrorists to shell civilian areas. We are normal, healthy people.”
Meanwhile, Russia has banned dozens of UK journalists, including the heads of the BBC, Times and Guardian, from entering the country.
A statement published by its ministry of foreign affairs said those included on the 29-strong list were “involved in the deliberate dissemination of false and one-sided information” about Russia and the war in Ukraine. Another 20 figures who Moscow claim are linked to the defence industry were also sanctioned. A spokesman for The Guardian said this was a “bad day for press freedom”.
British foreign secretary Liz Truss on Tuesday said she would do “whatever was necessary” to secure the release of the two British nationals, Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, who were sentenced to death last week for “mercenary activities” by the court of the self-declared Donetsk republic. International human rights groups called it “show trial” designed to exert pressure on the UK. – Guardian/PA