In the past six days, more than 3,000 civilians have been evacuated from the Donetsk region, plagued by fighting in eastern Ukraine, since the authorities made such evacuations compulsory in late July, kyiv announced on Tuesday.
"Among them almost 600 children and 1,400 women," said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential administration, on his Telegram channel.
He said more than 1.3 million people had been evacuated from the area since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February and that there was "now a population of 350,000 people, including 50 000 children, on the territory of the region”.
After conquering almost all of Luhansk, the Russian forces concentrated their assault on neighboring Donetsk, with a view in particular to taking Kramatorsk, its main city in the area still under Ukrainian control.
The Russian advance, however, remains extremely slow.
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“Please evacuate”: Zelensky's appeal to residents of the Donetsk region
kyiv has been pushing civilians to evacuate the area for months with mixed results, with many residents refusing to leave citing financial reasons or saying they have nowhere to go.
"Terror is Russia's main weapon"
At the end of July, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the decision had been taken to make it compulsory to evacuate the Donetsk region, particularly in anticipation of winter, as the destruction of the gas distribution networks risked depriving housing of heater.
"At this stage of the war, terror is Russia's main weapon," he said, as Russian strikes on cities in the region claim civilian casualties almost every day.
In the past 24 hours, three civilians have died and 19 have been injured due to fighting in the region, the presidency said on Tuesday.
Read also5 minutes to understand why Zelensky calls on the inhabitants of the Donetsk region to evacuate
The lack of resources also comes into play.
The population represents “a burden” in this area, since it no longer works.
“If we can stop losing logistics to feed 200,000 people and we can allocate it to armament and food for the soldiers, that would be better,” said Xavier Tytelman, military aviator.
