krain president Volodymyr Zelensky has ordered a mandatory evacuation of areas in the Donetsk region that Russia has no control in a speech to the nation.
In a late-night televised address, Mr. Zelensky said that the hundreds of thousands of people still in combat zones in the greater… Donbas region, which includes both Donetsk and the neighboring Luhansk region, had to leave.
“The more people who leave the Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill,” he said, adding that residents who left would receive compensation.
Zelensky said hundreds of thousands of people still lived in areas of Donbas where there was fierce fighting.
“Many are refusing to leave, but it has yet to happen,” the president said. “If you have the chance, talk to those who are still in the combat zones in Donbas. Please convince them that it is necessary to leave.”
Separately, domestic Ukrainian media quoted Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying the evacuation should take place before winter sets in as the region’s natural gas deposits had been destroyed.
It comes as British defense chiefs warned that Russia fired at least 20 rockets into northern Ukraine from Belarus on July 28.
In the latest intelligence update, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) added: “Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko continues to follow Moscow’s line on the Ukraine conflict, declaring on July 21 that Ukraine will support Russia’s demand for the war. must accept to stop.
“His regime has become increasingly authoritarian, with the extension of the death penalty for ‘preparing terrorist acts’. His mounting and baseless accusations of Western designs on Belarus and Ukraine probably indicate that he has become almost completely dependent on Russia.”
This is not the first time Ukrainian authorities have called on citizens to evacuate areas they control in Donetsk.
John Herbst, a former US ambassador to Ukraine, said it could be due to the expectation of heavier fighting rather than fuel shortages.
“I don’t know why Zelensky made the call,” he said. “What I do know is that there was heavy fighting in Donetsk. The Russians took (neighboring) Luhansk (oblast) a few weeks ago. I expect more fierce fighting in Donetsk.”
It comes after Ukraine accused Russia of committing a war crime after more than 50 prisoners of war were killed in a bomb attack.
The captured soldiers were killed when their detention camp in Olenivka, controlled by the Moscow-backed separatist Donetsk People’s Republic, was destroyed on Friday.
The camp was close to the front lines and Russia claims it was hit by a US-made Ukrainian missile.
But Kiev called it a “deliberate Russian war crime” and demanded that the UN and the Red Cross be allowed to investigate.