Russia captures half of Ukraine city

By Our Special Correspondent

Hours after EU leaders reached a watery agreement to ban more than two-thirds of Moscow's oil imports, Russian forces have seized control of half of key Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, a senior official said on Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, the front line divides the city in half. But the city is still defending itself, the city is still Ukrainian, our soldiers are defending it," said Oleksandr Stryuk, head of the military and civil administration of Severodonetsk, where 13,000 civilians are still being sheltered. Once a dilapidated city with a population of over 100,000.

It is impossible to track civilian casualties amid round-the-clock shelling, the mayor said, believing that more than 1,500 residents have died from a variety of causes since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February. Evacuation efforts from Severodonetsk were halted due to shelling.

Luhansk region Governor Serhi Haidai said a Russian airstrike on Severidonetsk had hit a tank of nitric acid at a chemical plant, causing a massive leak of smoke. He posted a picture of a large cloud hanging over the city and asked residents to stay inside and wear gas masks or enhanced ones.

Electricity to the city has been cut off and people need water, food and medicine, the mayor said: “There are food supplies for several more days, but the issue is how to distribute them.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, one of the key figures who blocked an agreement by the 27-nation bloc, hailed the deal for preserving Budapest's supply of cheap crude from Moscow.

Regional Governor Sergei Haidai told Ukrainian state television on Tuesday that Russian forces were advancing slowly through the center of the city, but that there was no danger of encirclement as Ukrainian forces guarding the Severodonetsk could retreat to the Licensing on the river.