JAKARTA - Russia called on Ukrainian troops hiding in a chemical factory in Sievierodonetsk and being embattled, to lay down their weapons and surrender on Wednesday local time. will be prominent at a meeting of NATO defense ministers on Wednesday in Brussels, Belgium.
More than 500 civilians are trapped with soldiers inside Azot, a chemical plant, according to Ukrainian authorities, where its forces have fought weeks of Russian bombing and attacks that have destroyed large parts of Sievierodonetsk.
Fighters must "stop their senseless resistance and lay down their arms from 8 a.m. Moscow time," Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia's National Defense Management Center, told the Interfax news agency.
Civilians will be expelled through humanitarian corridors, Mizintsev continued.
The Azot bombing echoed earlier fighting over the Azovstal steel mill in the southern port of Mariupol, where hundreds of fighters and civilians had taken refuge from Russian shelling. Those inside surrendered in mid-May and were taken into Russian custody.
The shooting in Azot was so intense that "people can't take it anymore in shelters, their psychological state is restless," said regional governor Serhiy Gaidai of Lugansk, one of two eastern provinces that Moscow claims on behalf of separatist proxies.
The battle for Sievierodonetsk in Lugansk, a city of nearly 100,000 people before the war, is now the biggest fight in Ukraine as the conflict has become a war of attrition.
Ukraine is still trying to evacuate civilians after Russian troops destroyed the last bridge to the city. The fighting has changed hands several times over the past few weeks, and Ukrainian officials have given little indication that they will withdraw.
"We must remain strong. The more losses the enemy suffers, the less power he must have to pursue his aggression," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech Tuesday night.
Ukraine still holds Lysychansk, the sister city of Sievierodonetsk on higher ground on the west bank of the Siverskyi Donets river. However, with all bridges now cut, his troops acknowledged the threat that they could be surrounded.
Kyiv says 100-200 of its soldiers are killed every day, with hundreds more injured.
Separately, Russia does not provide regular figures of its own losses, but Western countries say they have suffered heavy losses, as President Vladimir Putin seeks to force Kyiv to give up complete control of two provinces, gLuhansk and Donetsk, collectively known as Donbas.
Momentum in Sievierodonetsk has shifted several times over the past few weeks, with Russia concentrating its overwhelming artillery arsenal in urban districts to eliminate resistance, then sending ground troops vulnerable to counterattack.
Bigger fighting could take place over the wider Ukrainian-held Donbas area, almost all of which is across a river that is difficult for Russian troops to cross. Ukraine says Russia plans to attack Sloviansk from the north and along the front near Bakhmut in the south.
In Donetsk province, critical infrastructure including homes, schools, hospitals and markets have come under attack over the past week, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.
"This has made life almost unbearable for people who also face severe water shortages, and are sometimes unable to leave their homes for days due to fighting," Dujarric said.
It is understood Ukrainian officials have renewed a plea to the United States and its allies to send more and better artillery and tanks, drones and other heavy weapons to confront Russia.
Western nations have pledged standard NATO weapons - including advanced US rockets. But distributing them takes time, Ukraine will need consistent Western support to transition to new supplies and systems as their stockpiles of Soviet-era weapons and ammunition dwindle.
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