As fighting for control of the city raged, local authorities said they still had ways to evacuate people, although it was not immediately clear which route the Ukrainian army was using. “The ways to connect with the city are quite difficult, but they exist,” Oleksandr Struik, head of the Sievierodonetsk military administration, told Ukrainian television, adding that evacuations take place “every minute when there is silence or there is a possibility of evacuation.” “Russian troops are trying to invade the city, but the army is holding steady,” he added. Russia is believed to control about 70% of the city. Struik said about 500 civilians continued to be sheltered at the city’s Azot chemical plant, fearing a similar scenario could occur in the southern port city of Mariupol, where hundreds of people had been trapped for weeks at the Azovstal steel plant. A senior Russian commander said Russian forces were ready to open a humanitarian corridor Wednesday morning to evacuate civilians from the Azot plant in Svatove, a pro-Russian city north of Sievierodonetsk. Colonel Mikhail Mizintsev, the officer in charge of the catastrophic siege of Mariupol, said Ukraine had asked the Russian side to help organize a humanitarian corridor to Lysychansk, a neighboring Ukrainian-controlled city on the other side of the border. Siverskyi Donets from Sievierodonetsk, but that the Russian Ministry of Defense considered the request of Ukraine as an attempt to save its encircled units. Ukraine has not yet commented on Mizinchev’s proposal. He had previously accused Russia of violating ceasefire agreements. The Russian military has shifted most of its military efforts to occupy Sievierodonetsk in an attempt to take full control of Luhansk and Donetsk, collectively known as the Donbas. Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai told Ukrainian television on Tuesday that two more Russian regular battalions had been evacuated to the area. The battle for Sievierodonetsk turns into one of the bloodiest battles of the war and is considered a possible turning point in Russia’s progress in Donbas. In a speech Monday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “We are dealing with the ultimate evil. And we have no choice but to go ahead and liberate our territory. The human cost of this battle is very high for us. It’s just scary. “ On Monday, several Ukrainian officials called on the West to supply Ukraine with heavier weapons, as the country’s commander-in-chief, Valery Zaluzhnyi, said Russian forces had a tenfold advantage in firepower. The occupation of Sievierodonetsk and its neighboring city, Lysychansk, would give Russia full control of Luhansk as well as the ability to focus its attack on Donetsk. In a statement Monday, the Ukrainian military said Russian forces were “creating conditions” for attacks in the cities of Sloviansk, Lyman, Yabil and Siversk in Donetsk. Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. There was no immediate reaction from Kyiv to the reports. Pointing to the alleged blows in the city of Donetsk, Dennis Pushilin, the leader of the self-proclaimed republic in Donetsk, said that the proxy state would turn to Russia for more military assistance. Asked about Pushilin’s request, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov told reporters that “protecting” the two breakaway republics was the main goal of Russia’s “special military operation”.
