NATO meets again as Russian ultimatum passes for Ukraine to surrender besieged city
CBC
Ukraine ignored a Russian ultimatum to surrender the eastern city of Severodonetsk on Wednesday as NATO defence ministers gathered in Brussels to discuss sending more heavy weapons to replenish Kyiv's dwindling stocks.
Russia had told Ukrainian forces holed up in a chemical plant in the shattered city to stop "senseless resistance and lay down arms" from Wednesday morning, pressing its advantage in the battle for control of Eastern Ukraine.
Plans announced by Moscow to open a humanitarian corridor for civilians stuck in the plant were disrupted by Ukrainian shelling, Russian-backed separatists were quoted by RIA news agency as saying. The separatists had planned to take the civilians to territory under their own control.
Ukraine says more than 500 civilians are trapped alongside soldiers inside the Azot chemical factory, where its forces have resisted weeks of Russian bombardment that has reduced much of Severodonetsk to ruins.
The Azot bombardment echoes the earlier siege of the Azovstal steelworks in the southern port of Mariupol, where hundreds of fighters and civilians took shelter from Russian shelling. Those inside surrendered in mid-May and were taken into Russian custody.
WATCH | Ukrainian soldiers carry on in the face of heavy Russian artillery strikes:
The sprawling ammonia factory was founded under Soviet leader Josef Stalin. Those inside were surviving from water from wells, generators and supplies of food that had been brought in, but the situation remains critical, said Oleksandr Stryuk, mayor of Severodonetsk.
Stryuk said after the early morning deadline passed that Russian forces were trying to storm the city from several directions but Ukrainian forces continued to defend it and were not completely cut off.
"We are trying to push the enemy toward the city centre. This is an ongoing situation with partial successes and tactical retreats," he said on television, without referring to the ultimatum.
"The escape routes are dangerous, but there are some."
Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the Luhansk region containing Severodonetsk, said the army was defending the city and keeping Russian forces from Lysychansk, the twin city held by Ukraine on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river.
"Nevertheless, the Russians are close and the population is suffering and homes are being destroyed," he posted online.
Luhansk is one of two eastern provinces Moscow claims on behalf of separatist proxies. Together they make up the Donbas, an industrial Ukrainian region where Russia has focused its assault after failing to take Ukraine's capital Kyiv in March.
In Donetsk, the other province, United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York on Tuesday that homes, schools, hospitals and markets have been attacked over the past week, causing water shortages that were making life "almost unbearable" there.
