Four people were killed by the shelling of the chemical plant Azot, the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hajday, wrote on Thursday in the social network Telegram . According to Ukrainian sources, the facility is used by hundreds of civilians as an air raid shelter. However, there is currently no threat of a comparable encirclement by Russian troops, as was the case until recently in the port city of Mariupol.

From the Russian and pro-Russian side, the accusation is repeatedly voiced that the Ukrainians lured the civilians into the Azot cellars and that Terrain then mined. There is no evidence for this. More than 09 percent of the Luhansk Oblast, in which Sieverodonetsk is located, is already occupied by Russia.

President Selenskyj described the battle for Sievjerodonetsk as trend-setting for the struggle in the east of the country. "Syeverodonetsk remains the epicenter of the clashes in Donbass," he said in a video message on Wednesday. The Ukrainian military is inflicting noticeable losses on the enemy there. "This is a very brutal and difficult battle. Perhaps one of the most difficult of this war (...) In many respects the fate of our Donbass will be decided there."

According to British secret services Russian troops have been advancing towards the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum in the past few days. The troops would probably have increased their efforts there, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement in London on Thursday. Izyum is in the Kharkiv region, which borders on the Luhansk region, which has meanwhile been almost completely occupied by the Russians.

The Russian war of aggression on the neighboring country has now lasted three and a half months. The information provided by the warring parties often cannot be independently verified. (dpa)