Every bridge leading to key Ukrainian city destroyed

KIEV: A top official has said that every bridge leading to the key Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk, where fierce battles are currently raging, has been destroyed.

In a social media post on Monday, Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said all three bridges into Severodonetsk were destroyed and the residents remaining in the city were being forced to survive in "extremely difficult conditions", the BBC reported.

For several weeks now, Severodonetsk has witnessed fierce battles as Russia is now concentrating on capturing the entire eastern part of Ukraine.

Taking Severodonetsk and the nearby city of Lysychansk would give Moscow control of the entire Luhansk region, much of which is already controlled by Russian-backed separatists.

Haidai further said that delivering supplies and evacuating civilians was now impossible as the city has been effectively cut off.

Citing reports, the BBC said that 70 per cent of Severodonetsk is now under Russian control.

Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky had said that Ukrainian troops in the city were fighting Russian forces for "literally every metre".

Also on Monday, Eduard Basurin, a military representative of the pro-Russian self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, told reporters that Ukrainian troops remaining in Severodonetsk must "surrender or die".

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