Too late to evacuate civilians in face of Russian attack, says Luhansk official

Ukrainian servicemen prepare to move toward the frontline at a checkpoint near Lysychansk in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas on Monday. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

The governor of Luhansk has delivered a warning that it is too late for thousands of civilians to be evacuated from the besieged city of Sievierodonetsk, as it faced an intensive Russian assault to take the city and the parts of the province still held by Ukraine.

Surrounded on three sides by Russian forces who have been attempting to complete their encirclement of the pocket around the city, Sievierodonetsk and the towns and villages to its west have been under intense bombardment in recent days.