Up to 1,200 civilians may be in plant in eye of Ukraine battle, separatist says

FILE PHOTO: A man holds his baby inside Azot chemical plant's bomb shelter, where people have been hiding from from shelling since the beginning of the war, in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk region, Ukraine, April 16, 2022. REUTERS/Marko Djurica/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) -Up to 1,200 civilians may be holed up in the shelters of the Azot chemical plant in the eastern Ukrainian city where one of the fiercest battles of the war has been raging between Russian and Ukrainian forces, a Russian-backed separatist said.

Russian forces are trying to grind down Ukrainian resistance in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, part of a wider push to drive Kyiv's forces out of two separatist regions which Russia backs and has recognised as independent states.