Civilians trapped in Eastern Ukrainian city

Troops have destroyed all three bridges leading out of the city of Severodonetsk, the last pocket of resistance in the Luhansk province in the contested Donbas region. Severodonetsk is under near-constant shelling, Ukrainian officials said Tuesday, and Ukrainian forces have pulled back to the industrial outer edge of the city. Russia is amassing troops to take the rest of the Donbas region. Ukrainian officials have again asked the West for more and better weapons.

What’s happening to citizens? About 12,000 people remain in the city, down from 100,000 before the war began, and more than 500 of them are sheltering in the Azot chemical plant. Russia said it will give troops inside the plant a chance to surrender Wednesday morning. The governor of the Luhansk province said Ukraine could still evacuate some of the wounded in the city, but constant fighting makes a mass exodus of civilians impossible. In the past 24 hours, only about 70 civilians have been escorted from the Luhansk region, the governor said.

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