Ukraine on Thursday ordered the evacuation of children and their guardians from several towns and villages in the eastern Donetsk region, where fighting with Russia is intensifying.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Russian firepower is now concentrated in Donetsk, which the Kremlin claimed to have annexed in 2022 despite not having full control over it.
“This is an important decision designed primarily to save the lives of our children,” Donetsk governor Vadym Filashkin said on social media.
“The security situation in the region is constantly deteriorating and the intensity of shelling is increasing,” he added.
He listed the town of Lyman, which was briefly held by Russian forces before being recaptured, as well as several other villages near the front line, including the hamlet of Progres.
In the early months of the war launched in February 2022, Zelensky urged all residents of the industrial Donetsk region to flee, but those orders were not enforced.
Ukraine was forced last month to divert manpower to the northeastern Kharkiv region from other areas of the front line after Russian forces launched a ground offensive into the border territory.
And since capturing the hub of Avdiivka in February, Russian forces have pushed further west against the Ukrainian army which is suffering manpower and ammunition shortages.
Filashkin had earlier announced that one person was killed and three more were wounded in separate Russian attacks on the territory.
“A 59-year-old woman was killed in Chasіv Yar and a man of retirement age was wounded,” he said, referring to a town situated on strategic heights that Russian forces have been storming.
He said two civilians were killed and more than a dozen more were wounded in Russian attacks the day before.
More than 217 people were evacuated — including 61 children — the day before, he added in his statement.
