Shells and rockets were raining down at regular intervals on the industrial city of Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, AFP journalists reported.
A building was on fire and there were hardly any civilians on the street. Its inhabitants peeked out when the bombing stopped for a few minutes, but quickly went back under cover when it resumed, AFP journalists saw.
With more than 100,000 inhabitants before the war, Severodonetsk is the largest city in the east controlled by the Ukrainian army, close to the front line with pro-Russian separatist territories.
A UN humanitarian convoy with eight trucks managed to reach this city with humanitarian rations, flour and warm clothing for some 17,000 people, in addition to four electric generators for its hospitals.
The Russian military has said in recent days that it wants to concentrate its efforts in the east of the country, including the Lugansk region, where Severodonetsk is located.
The region’s governor, Sergei Gaidai, said on social media that one person was killed in a shelling in the neighboring town of Rubizhne on Tuesday, five were injured and seven were “extracted from the rubble.”
