Russian and pro-Russia forces have taken control of the Azot chemical plant in the battleground eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk and "evacuated" more than 800 civilians sheltering there, pro-Moscow separatists said Saturday.
The forces have "taken full control of the Azot plant industrial zone," a separatist representative Andrei Marochko said on Telegram, a day after Ukraine announced it would withdraw its troops from the key city.
Another separatist spokesman, Ivan Filiponenko, said that around 800 civilians who had taken refuge in the plant during weeks of fighting had been "evacuated".
The mayor of Sievierodonetsk had also said that Russian forces had fully occupied the strategic frontline city in eastern Ukraine.
