A powerful explosion rocked an area near the besieged Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk on Saturday, an official from the leaders of Russia-backed separatists said, with an orange cloud seen rising into the sky.
Rodion Miroshnik, an official in the separatist administration of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, posted a video on Telegram of what he said was the cloud.
Miroshnik said he could not tell if the explosion occurred in or near the city.
Severodonetsk, which has been bombarded by Russian forces for weeks, has an Azot chemical plant where hundreds of civilians are sheltering.
Russian missiles destroy fuel depot
In an online message, the head of the Novomoskovsk local administration said that 3 Russian missiles destroyed a fuel storage depot in the eastern Ukrainian town of Novomoskovsk on Saturday, taking three people to hospital.
Valentin Reznichenko posted a photo of what he said was a massive fire in the warehouse. Novomoskovsk is located to the northeast of the regional capital, Dnipro.
Russian reserve forces
from his side, Russia has begun sending a large number of reservists to Severodonetsk, from other combat zones, in an attempt to take full control of the front-line city in eastern Ukraine, Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, said Saturday.
“Today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, they will push all their reserve forces… a large number of them are already there, and they constitute the minimum required to preserve (their gains),” Gaidai told Ukrainian television.
He said that Russian forces had already taken control of most, but not all, of the city.
On Saturday, the Ukrainian authorities reported “fierce battles” in villages near the eastern city of Severodonetsk, which Russian forces have been trying to control for weeks, while the Russian Defense Ministry announced the downing of 8 Ukrainian drones near Borovinka in the Lugansk People’s Republic.
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