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Russian forces are advancing towards the center of the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk, which has been under fire for weeks.

Fighting is taking place in the streets and "the situation is very complicated and difficult," Luhansk Oblast Governor Sergiy Gaidai was quoted as saying by AFP.

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He said two people were injured today when their car came under fire.

They are safe.

Three medics have been reported missing, the governor added.

"The infrastructure of Severodonetsk has been destroyed, 60% of the housing stock cannot be restored," Gaidai stressed.

He warned that the road between Severodonetsk and the neighboring city of Lisichansk was too dangerous for the evacuation of civilians and the transportation of humanitarian aid.

Zelensky: 90% of homes in Severodonetsk are partially or completely destroyed

Yesterday, Gaidai announced that Russian forces were attacking Severodonetsk and said that the situation in Lisichansk had worsened.

Severodonetsk, a city of 100,000 before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has come under artillery fire for weeks from the Russian army and pro-Russian separatists fighting on its side.

Dozens of civilians were killed.

Severodonetsk and Lisichansk are more than 80km east of Kramatorsk, which has become the administrative center of Ukraine's Donbass region after Moscow-backed separatists seized the eastern part of the coal region in 2014.

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