Russian strikes killed at least four civilians in Donetsk on Wednesday, Ukraine’s eastern region head of government Pavlo Kirilenko revealed on Thursday.
The deaths occurred in Liman, Sidorov and Beoresto, raising the number of victims in the region to 431 dead and 1,168 woundedKirilenko said, on the Telegram platform.
Donbass. Combat in a 120-kilometer zone that could define the “destiny” of Ukraine
The official stressed, however, that “it is impossible to determine the exact number of victims in Mariupol and Volnovakha.”
Russian forces last week took full control of the port city of Mariupol.after the surrender of the last Ukrainian soldiers, who had been entrenched in the huge Azovstal steel complex for almost two months.
Russia attacks more than 40 villages in Donbass. The Battle of Severodonetsk could last for hours
The head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, Valentyn Reznichenko, said on Wednesday that Russian troops fired three missiles at Krivoy Rog at an industrial enterprise.
During the morning, the enemy fired three missiles at Krivoy Rog. They attacked an industrial company. Serious damage. We are clarifying the information about the victims,” Reznichenko said, adding that alarm bells have been sounding incessantly in the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to the Unian news agency.
Russian forces have focused in recent weeks on eastern Ukraine, where since 2014 parts of Donbass have been controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
The pro-Russian militias of the Lugansk People’s Republic, together with the Russian army in the Donbass region, assured this Wednesday that they had “operatively” surrounded the city of Severodonetsk, in eastern Ukraine.
Lugansk Governor Says Region “Now It’s Like Mariupol”
The head of the Severodonetsk military administration, Alexander Stryuk, confirmed on Thursday that Russian troops have been constantly shelling the area, but assured that the city remains accessible.
“Yes, there are complications in the situation, but to say that the city is under siege is wrong“Stryuk specified, reported by Channel 24.
Russian Army Forces and Donbass Militias they also claim to have surrounded the towns of Zolotoye and Górskoye.
Severodonetsk, a prewar city of about 100,000, has been under pressure from Russian troops and pro-Russian separatist fighters for several weeks.
The city is located more than 80 kilometers east of Kramatorsk, which has become the Administrative center of Donbasssince Moscow-backed separatists took control of the region.
The military offensive launched in the early hours of February 24 by Russia in Ukraine has already caused more than 14 million people to flee their homes – more than eight million internally displaced persons and more than 6.6 million to neighboring countries -, according to the latest UN report. data, which place this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939-1945).
Also according to the United Nations, about 15 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Ukraine.
Source: Observadora
