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About 800 civilians are “sheltering” at the Azot chemical plant in the city of Severodonetsk. This was reported by the Agence France-Presse (AFP), citing the lawyer of the owner of the enterprise.
“About 800 civilians took refuge in the shelters of the Azot chemical plant owned by Dmytro Firtash’s Group DF,” the lawyer of the Ukrainian tycoon Lanny J. Davis said in a statement.
According to the statement, the civilians include about 200 out of 3,000 factory workers and about 600 residents of Severodonetsk. He was reportedly talking about the employees of the plant, who are also responsible for the vital processes of the chemical enterprise.
A large number of chemicals are stored on the Azot plant, the detonation of which can cause damage to the city and the several regions.
On June 8, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova warned about the plans of the Ukrainian military to carry out another provocation in the city of Severodonetsk. Kiev’s forces are mining the containers with toxic chemicals at the Azot plant.
“According to Kiev’s plan, the explosion of tanks with more than 100 tons of saltpeter and nitric acid should delay the advance of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the republics of Donbass. Russia is supposed to be blamed for the man—made disaster, as always,” Zakharova said at a briefing.
She also confirmed that Ukrainian militants plan to keep “more than a thousand factory workers and local residents” in the underground shelters of the enterprise.
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On May 31, retreating units of the AFU already blew up a tank with nitric acid on the Azot territory. After the explosion, a poisonous orange cloud rose moved towards the settlements of Kremennaya and Rubezhnoye. As a result, the explosion was used to cover the retreat of Ukrainian forces from the city across the river to Lisichansk. The Ukrainian troops attempted to create a zone of chemical contamination and delay the offensive of Russian-led forces.
The Ukrainian military is following the “Mariupol plan” in an attempt to delay the full control of Russian-led forces over the Severodonetsk-Lisichansk metropolitan area. Fighting has already reached the territory of the Azot plant, and the satellite imagery confirmed that some of the facilities were already damaged. The Azot plant is smaller then the notorious Azovstal plant in Mariupol. In turn, the Russian military is yet to surround the industrial area and the city of Lisichansk. The Russian advance around the AFU positions will likely determine if the Azot plant will be stormed or blockaded. The Ukrainian strategy of using civilians as human shields had no strategic results and lead to casualties that could be avoided. It does not stop the Russian advance but may only delay it.
