When fierce fighting was still raging around Sievjerodonetsk, hundreds of civilians held out at the Azot chemical plant. The city is now under Russian control. The remaining workers should now apparently return to the factory. Ukraine warns of disaster.
Russia apparently wants to restart the badly damaged Azot chemical plant in occupied Sievjerodonetsk. According to Ukrainian sources, the remaining workers have been forced to return to their jobs. This is reported by Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister.
On Twitter, he warns that the factory was badly damaged in the fighting. Control and security systems are not yet intact again. According to Gerashchenko, the restart could lead to a “technological catastrophe”. The plant produces ammonia, ammonium nitrate and nitric acid, among other things.
After fierce fighting, Russia captured the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievjerodonetsk at the end of June. At that time, hundreds of civilians holed up in the Azot factory, which had been converted into an air raid shelter. Many of them were evacuated by pro-Russian separatists. At their own request, they were taken to Starobilsk, about 50 kilometers northeast of Sievjerodonetsk, the Russian side said at the time.
Russia has always claimed in the past that Ukrainian militants held the civilians hostage at the Azot plant until the city was captured. The Ukrainian side denies this. Rather, they repeatedly accuse the Russian troops of forcing Ukrainian civilians to leave the occupied territories by sabotaging or completely preventing escape routes into Ukrainian-controlled territory.
