GROZNY, June 20. /TASS/. Plans are in store to evacuate most of the civilians, who are stuck in the industrial zone in Severodonetsk, within the next two days, Apti Alaudinov, an aide to the Chechen leader and commander of the Akhmat special unit, said on Monday.
"I can note that we are squeezing them [the Ukrainian troops] out day by day and [we] are moving deeper into the industrial zone. They [the Kiev regime’s troops] are sustaining huge losses daily. Our movement is only complicated by the fact that a lot of civilians, up to 1,000 people, are held down in this section. We have conducted some work there at the instruction of [Chechen head] Ramzan Kadyrov. I think it will take a couple of days to evacuate most of the civilians from there," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 television channel.
According to Alaudinov, "full-scale" combat operations will begin after civilians are evacuated from the industrial area. "We plan to fix the problem of Severodonetsk’s industrial zone within days," he vowed.
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on June 7 that Sverodonetsk’s residential areas had been completely liberated and Russian forces were continuing operations to take control of the city’s industrial zone and neighboring settlements. Alaudinov said back then that some 20% of the area had been mopped up but more than 1,000 civilians were being held there.