Authorities in the Lugansk People’s Republic estimate that there may be as many as 1,200 civilians trapped in the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk. “At present, between 1,000 and 1,200 civilians are held as hostages on the territory of Azot,” Vitaly Kiselev, an aide to the L.P.R. Interior Minister told TASS this morning. “They have been held there against their will, for quite a while. There is no water, no food, no medicines. About 127 of them are children,” he said.
TASS reports that Kyiv asked Russia on June 14 to open a humanitarian corridor for the passage of civilians from the Azot plant to Lisichansk, a city it still controls. According to Kiselev, the Ukrainian forces plan to leave Azot using civilian hostages as a cover. In his estimates, about 2,500 people may be holed up in the Severodonetsk industrial zone, and up to one-quarter of them are foreign mercenaries.
