Severdonetsk is located in the heart of Donbas, an extensive industrial area in eastern Ukraine that has been the scene of intermittent fighting since 2014, when Russian-backed separatists seized control of two territories – the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and its People’s Republic. Luhansk. Russian-backed officials say negotiations are under way to free those at the local Azot chemical plant, which is reportedly home to 800 people. “The militants are hiding inside the Azot factory. The release of the hostages and their surrender is under negotiation,” said Rodion Mirosnik, leader of the Luhansk People’s Alliance with Russia. Miroshnik claimed that up to 400 Ukrainian fighters were taking refuge in the factory complex, along with civilians in the factory bomb shelter. “The fighters are trying to make demands, that is, to allow them to leave the territory of the chemical plant together with the hostages and provide a corridor to go to Lysychansk. Such demands are unacceptable and will not be taken into account,” Miroshnik said. Talks are also under way to allow the safe evacuation of civilians and the safety of Ukrainian forces if they surrender unconditionally, he added.

The number of dead in Mariupol is increasing

Further south in Mariupol, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office reported an additional 24 child deaths on Saturday following Russian bombings during a months-long siege of the southern port city. The blockade ended last month after Russian forces took control of the Azovstal steel plant where Ukrainian forces were hiding. That brings the total number of juveniles killed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to 287, the attorney general’s office said in a Telegram post. More than 492 children were injured during the war, according to the statement. The statement added that these figures are incomplete, as work is underway to verify the deaths of children in other places where active fighting is taking place. The office also said that 1,971 educational institutions had been damaged by the Russian bombing, with 194 of them completely destroyed. On May 25, an adviser to Mariupol Mayor Petro Andruschenko – who has also moved to Ukrainian-controlled territories – told CNN that Mariupol town officials believe at least 22,000 city residents were killed during three months of war. The news comes as the city battles a possible cholera outbreak, according to a British intelligence report released on Friday. Access to drinking water, internet connection and telephone services is unreliable in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, the report said, reflecting the concerns of Ukrainian officials as Russia seeks to provide basic public services to civilians in the occupied territories. .

“Ukraine will definitely prevail”

As Russian forces advance control of key areas in Ukraine and the number of civilian casualties increases, President Volodymyr Zelensky remains firm in his position that Ukraine will overcome the Russian invasion. Speaking in a special virtual speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s leading defense conference, Zelensky said Ukraine would “definitely prevail” in its war against Russia. “This is the confrontation between the strong, which we and many people in the world need, and the weak, for which Russia is fighting so desperately,” Zelensky said. He added that Russia considers his country as its “colony” and is doing everything possible to make possible the “free and independent existence of Ukraine”. “Russia wants to make it impossible for our people to use their land, resources and water to their advantage. Russia wants to steal it and this active looting of the land it has (managed) to occupy – they remove “literally everything,” Zelensky added. “It is on the battlefield in Ukraine that the future rules of this world are being decided along with the limits of what is possible,” Zelensky said. “Let us save the whole world from going back to the times when everything was decided on the basis of the so-called right to power and when certain peoples and their ideas, and many nations, had no consequences,” Zelensky said. The Ukrainian president also urged leaders to do whatever it takes to “break the ability of Russia and any other country in the world to block the seas and destroy the freedom of navigation.” Zelensky warned that failure to do so would lead to “acute and severe food crisis and famine” in many Asian and African countries. He added that the Black Sea, through which Ukraine exported most of its food before the invasion of Russia, has become the most dangerous waterway in the world. Since the start of the war, Russia has been blocking Ukraine from exporting goods from its ports, fueling fears of a global food crisis. Prior to the war, wheat supplies from Russia and Ukraine accounted for nearly 30 percent of world trade, and Ukraine was the world’s fourth-largest exporter of corn and the fifth-largest exporter of wheat, according to the State Department. The United Nations World Food Program – which helps combat global food insecurity – buys about half of its grain from Ukraine each year and has warned of dire consequences if Ukrainian ports do not open. “Ladies and gentlemen, I am grateful for your support in Ukraine, I am grateful for your attention in Ukraine, in our country. But please remember that this support and this attention is not only for Ukraine, but also for you, “Zelensky said. he said. CNN’s Kostan Nechyporenko, Jonny Hallam and Joshua Berlinger contributed to the report.