Ukrainians shelter beneath chemical plant that may possibly keep harmful product: Report

Victor I. Nava

June 02, 03:38 AM June 02, 03:38 AM

Citizens of an jap Ukrainian metropolis under powerful bombardment by Russian forces are sheltering underneath a chemical plant that could be storing perilous substances, according to a Ukrainian official.

The Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk is serving as a refuge for civilians as Russian troops enter the town that is now 70% managed by Russia, in accordance to the governor of the Luhansk province. While the governor famous to Reuters that the bunkers beneath the chemical plant were being "potent Soviet-era" bomb shelters, he anxious a Russian airstrike could established off any remaining substances becoming saved at the facility, as was the scenario on Tuesday.

"There are civilians there in bomb shelters, there are quite a number of of them," Serhiy Haidai, the head of Luhansk's regional military services administration, told Reuters on Wednesday.

Haidai additional that the Azot plant is "privately-owned" and "we cannot know 100% if any chemical compounds are remaining."

"We ended up assured that there had been no [chemicals] still left, but as we can see there are continue to some remnants," he mentioned, referring to an airstrike that blew up a tank crammed with nitric acid at the facility on Tuesday.

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Tuesday's airstrike despatched a cloud of harmful orange smoke billowing into the sky.

The circumstance at the Azot chemical plant may possibly seem to be reminiscent of the standoff that took place at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, the place Ukrainian troops and civilians holed up for weeks as Russian forces bombed and attempted to storm the facility as they took command of the metropolis, but Haidai reported that sort of scene will not perform out in Severodonetsk.

"It will not be a next Azovstal as that experienced a huge underground metropolis ... which just isn't there at Azot," he claimed.

Haidai extra that the Ukrainian armed forces did not install defensive fortifications at the Azot facility for the reason that of the chemical chance.

In accordance to stories, Russian forces are on the verge of seizing Severodonetsk, the most significant city in the northern Donbas area nevertheless below Ukrainian manage, and Ukrainian troops have slowly and gradually been withdrawing from the metropolis.

Haidai, having said that, vowed that Ukrainian forces will proceed to defend Luhansk.

"We will protect the location to the very last metropolis, village, or resident of Luhansk area. We will do almost everything possible, and even the difficult, not to permit the enemy progress even further," he mentioned.