KIEV, June 22. /TASS/. Several dozen civilians have left the premises of the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk over the past days yet this was not the result of an agreement with Ukrainian militants holed up there, the ambassador of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) to Russia said on Wednesday.

Rodion Miroshnik told the Soloviev Live TV channel that some people were able to leave the plant’s bomb shelters as the premises were being liberated by troops of the Donbass republics and Russia. "Over a couple of days, people came out several times, precisely on their own as the encirclement tightened around the militants," envoy said. "The people saw that a wave passed, looked outside [and saw that] it was possible to come out," he explained. "Yet this was not within the framework of agreements [with the Ukrainian side] and not as if they [let them go] and opened a humanitarian corridor," the diplomat specified.

The ambassador added that some civilians seeking shelter at Azot’s bomb shelters had worked at this enterprise while some resided nearby. "The city (Severodonetsk - TASS) has been shelled for the past three or four weeks. So the people were finding locations where to hide, where there are rather reliable shelters. And Azot in Severodonetsk is an old Soviet enterprise which has bomb shelters. Some of them found themselves hostages of the militants who were also seeking shelter there," he noted.

The militants of the Ukrainian Aidar nationalist battalion let go about 30 civilians they held hostage at the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk, a source close to the LPR’s People’s Militia told TASS on Tuesday. Earlier, aide to the LPR’s interior minister Vitaly Kiselev said that up to 1,200 civilians were being held hostage on the premises of the Azot plant.