MOSCOW, June 14 — The Russian army said it would establish a humanitarian corridor tomorrow to evacuate hundreds of civilians from the Azot chemical plant in the city of Severodonetsk.

"Guided by the principles of humanity, the Russian armed forces and the formations of the Lugansk People’s Republic are ready to organise a humanitarian operation to evacuate civilians,” the Russian defence ministry said today.

The humanitarian corridor will be in place between 8am (0500 GMT) and 8pm Moscow time Wednesday, the defence ministry said, adding the evacuees would be transported to the city of Svatovo in the separatist-held region of Lugansk.

Moscow also urged "militants of nationalist battalions and foreign mercenaries” at the plant to "stop senseless resistance” and lay down their arms.

Authorities in Ukraine have said that there are over 500 civilians hiding inside Azot, adding that it was difficult to support them but there were some reserves inside the plant.

A representative of the separatist authorities in Lugansk, Vitaly Kiselyov, estimated that some 2,500 Ukrainian and foreign fighters could be holed up at the Azot plant.

Moscow has laid siege for weeks to the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, the last areas in the eastern Ukrainian region of Lugansk still under Kyiv control.

The Russian army said that Ukrainian authorities requested that civilians from the Azot plant be transported to Kyiv-controlled Lysychansk but said that the evacuation there was not possible because the last bridge linking the cities had been destroyed. — AFP