Seri Heyde, the head of the Luhansk region’s military administration, said about 800 people were hiding in several bomb shelters under the Azot chemical factory in Severodnetsk, the target of Russian missile attacks.
Headey told CNN on Thursday that local residents have taken refuge in Soviet-era bomb shelters under the factory.
“There are locals who were told to leave town,” Headey said. “But they refuse. There are kids too, but there aren’t many of them.”
In a separate update on Thursday, regional Ukrainian officials said the Russians fired again at the Azot factory and “hit an administrative building and a warehouse where methanol was stored,” though it was unclear how much methanol was there. . was abandoned.
Ukrainians still maintain control of the Severodnetsk industrial area, the statement said, adding that not one of the remaining parts of the city has been taken by Russia.
One of the last cities to be held in Luhansk, “most of Severodnetsk”, is occupied by Russia, the golden days said before,
Headey said a Russian airstrike hit a tank of nitric acid at the Azot factory on Tuesday. Photos from that day showed a thick orange cloud of smoke rising from the area. But Heyde said there was no danger to the people taking refuge under the factory.
“Thank God nothing was in danger to the people,” Heyday told CNN on Thursday. “As (the cloud) has gone up and gone all at once, there is no fatal danger.”
Headey said the factory is privately owned, and owners say only a small amount of chemicals are left in the plant.
Headey said that the factory is not important from a military point of view, so “Azot is certainly not Azovstal” – referring to the steel plant. In Mariupol, which was taken by Russia after a week of siege,