The evacuation of civilians from Slavyansk continues. The town is the new primary target of the Russian invasion forces in their plan to conquer Donbas. Mayor Vadim Lyah announced that of the 110 thousand people who inhabited the city before the war, only 20,000 are left. „17 people have died and 67 have been wounded’ since the start of hostilities, Vadim Lyah said. The city has been under heavy artillery fire for a few weeks, but ” the essential infrastructure is still operational. In the last month, the main water supply line has broken down, and a third of the city is regularly left without electricity”. Much like other local officials, Mayor Lyah claims Ukrainian forces have repelled the attempts of the Russian army to get close to Slavyansk and the neighboring town, Kramatorsk, which serves as the administrative center of the Ukrainian-held part of Donbas. The Russian Ministry of Defense has accused „Ukrainian nationalists” of having organized „a toxic chemical attack” in the Donetsk region, with the use of „large quantities of chlorine, brought over from a water filtering site”. On Sunday, the Russian army occupied the town of Lysychansk and now claims to be controlling the entire region of Lahaska, which the Ukrainian authorities continue to deny.
