Russia-Ukraine conflict: Mayor says half of Sievierodonetsk captured

Kyiv: The mayor of Sievierodonetsk says Russian forces have taken around half of the city in eastern Ukraine.

Oleksandr Striuk told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday that heavy fighting is ongoing and artillery bombardments threaten the lives of the thousands of civilians still sheltering in the ruined city.

Half of the city has been captured by the Russians and fierce street fighting is under way, Striuk said.

The situation is very serious and the city is essentially being destroyed ruthlessly block by block.

He added that the Ukrainian military continues to resist this frenzied push and aggression by Russian forces.

Striuk estimated that around 13,000 people remained in the city out of a pre-war population of around 100,000 but said it was impossible to keep track of civilian casualties amid round-the-clock shelling.

He said more than 1,500 people in the city who died of various causes have been buried since the war began in February.

Evacuation efforts have been halted because of the danger of shelling.

He said that civilians are dying from direct strikes, from fragmentation wounds and under the rubble of destroyed buildings, since most of the inhabitants are hiding in basements and shelters.

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