| City is so destroyed that it will be difficult for people to cope with this situation,says military administration

SEVERODONETSK   -   The eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk is “completely under Russian occupation,” the city’s head of military administration said Saturday, following months of grueling and bloody fighting.

“The Russians appointed a commandant. But the city is so destroyed that it will be difficult for people to cope with this situation,” said military administration chief Oleksandr Striuk.

Regional military officials said Friday that the last troops in Severodonetsk had been ordered to leave, as it was impossible to keep defending their positions. This effectively ceded the city to Russia and put the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk almost fully under Russian control. Severodonetsk was one of the last major Ukrainian strongholds in the area. Serhiy Hayday, a top military commander in east Ukraine, said the military made the decision to evacuate “because the number of dead in unfortified territories may grow every day.” “Currently, there is no possibility to leave the city, people can try to leave only in the direction of the occupied territory. We will facilitate the evacuation, but so far there is no such opportunity,” Striuk said. Several hundred civilians had taken shelter at the Azot chemical plant and rejected pleas to leave.