- "They won't stop us": Ukrainian war volunteers not surrendering despite two comrades being sentenced to death.
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| Chemical plant hit by Russian attack in Severodonetsk, Ukraine, according to Ukrainian authorities. / MINISTRY OF INTERIOR OF UKRAINE |
The Ukrainian Army resists at the Azov chemical plant in order to prevent the total takeover of Severodonetsk, a key city in the east of the country, and stop the advance of Russian troops in Donbas, while they cut off supply routes and withdrawal of the defenders of the city, in an attempt to repeat their tactic of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol and thus break the will of the defenders of the last Ukrainian stronghold in the Lugansk region.
"Azot is not blocked. Fighting is taking place in the streets near the plant," said the head of the Lugansk military administration, Serhiy Gaidai, who has repeatedly denied the statements made by the pro-Russian forces, who claim to have cornered the defenders in the chemical combine.
Several pro-Russian channels on Telegram reported this Sunday about the blowing up of the Proletarski bridge that linked Severodonetsk with Lysychansk, which on the one hand prevents the supply of the defenders of Azot, but on the other hinders the Russian advance to Lysychansk.
In a photo released both by the pro-Russians and by the Ukrainian UNIAN agency, the collapsed bridge and several tanks and armored vehicles destroyed on each side can be seen.
📷Russian forces destroyed Proletarskyi bridge over Siverskyi Donets connecting #Lysychansk and #Sieverodonetsk. #UkraineRussiaWar pic.twitter.com/yz5RXFuSDA
— MilitaryLand.net (@Militarylandnet) June 12, 2022
Gaidai confirmed the blowing up of the bridge and warned that the Russian Army had begun bombing to cut off Ukrainian supplies and their possible withdrawal.
In addition, he advanced that the Russian troops were likely to intensify their attacks to take the city throughout this Sunday or Monday.
The exit of civilians from the plant
Meanwhile, the "ambassador" in Russia of the Ukrainian separatist region of Lugansk, Rodión Miroshnik, assured that civilians, without specifying their number, began to leave the Azot plant in Severodonetsk, surrounded by Russian military forces.
"Civilians held at the Azot plant are beginning to leave, they are leaving through an out-of-control entry point of the Ukrainian military. Civilians are received by allied forces and escorted to a safe place," Miróshnik wrote in his account. from Telegram.
The pro-Russian representative stated that the "remnants of the Ukrainian forces control several buildings in the area of the first entry point of the plant."
"Shots are heard, the Ukrainian military may still be holding several hundred civilians, who may be leaving their shelters as the allied forces tighten the siege," he added.
The day before, Miroshnik said that Russian forces blocked between 300 and 400 defenders of Azot, to whom he denied any alternative to surrender, while the Ukrainian command reported that Russian forces continued fighting in Severodonetsk "without success".
Day without progress
During the day, which passed without significant progress, the Russian forces sought to "stop the actions of the defense force with systematic fire on the Ukrainian positions" in the Kharkiv region, according to the Kyiv military command.
The Ukrainian Army accused the Russian forces of punishing the civil infrastructure in Vernopil, Ukrainka, Petrivka, Chepil, and Khrestyshche with their artillery and carrying out an air attack near the town of Mospanovo.
Further south, the Russian Army is preparing to start the battle for Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, key strongholds in the Donetsk region, and is preparing the ground with artillery attacks against the towns of Petrivske, Nova Husarivka, Kurulka, and Dolyna, the military report said. from Ukraine.
The Ukrainian command admitted de facto the loss of Bogorodichne, besieged the day before, stating that the Russian forces "are trying to gain a foothold" in this town.
Weapons destruction
For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that it had destroyed with long-range "Kalibr" missiles a large warehouse of anti-tank missile systems supplied to Kyiv by the US and European countries in the Ternopil region, in western Ukraine.
The missiles were launched from the sea over the town of Chortkiv, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in his morning war report.
According to Defense, the "Kalibr" reached "a large warehouse of anti-tank missile systems supplied to the Kyiv regime from the US and European countries, portable anti-aircraft missile systems and artillery shells for weapons systems."
In addition, according to Konashenkov, during the last day high-precision, air-launched missiles hit two command posts and 15 assembly areas of soldiers and military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Those missiles destroyed, according to Russia, a Buk-M1 anti-aircraft missile system launcher near Barvinkove, in the Kharkiv region, and an airspace control radar station near Sloviansk, in the Donetsk region.
They also hit a radar for detecting and tracking targets of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system in the vicinity of Kryvyi Rih in the Dnipro region, as well as two batteries of multiple launch missile systems in two locations in the Donetsk and Donetsk regions. Luhansk.