Mayor of Ukraine's Sievierodonetsk says evacuation impossible, 10,000 civilians remain

Ukrainian forces still hold the industrial zone and adjacent areas in the city of Sievierodonetsk, and the situation is "difficult but manageable", Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said on Thursday.

He said defence lines were holding despite intense Russian artillery fire but that it was now impossible to evacuate people from Sievierodonetsk. He said about 10,000 civilians remained in the city, which is now the main focus of Russia's offensive in Ukraine.