Volodymyr Zelensky has ordered the evacuation of people in the eastern region of Donetsk, where there is fierce fighting with Russia.
In his overnight TV address on Saturday, the Ukrainian president also said those still in combat zones in the greater Donbas region, which includes Luhansk, must leave.
He said: ‘There are hundreds of thousands of people, tens of thousands of children… Many people refuse to leave. But it really has to happen. This decision has yet to be made.
And the sooner it’s finished, the more people leaving the Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill.
“So, 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, especially if they are families with children. If you have the chance to help displaced people, do it.
“There is a government decision on mandatory evacuation from the Donetsk region, everything is being organised. Full support, full assistance – both logistics and payments.
‘We just need a decision from the people themselves, who haven’t made it yet. Go, we’ll help.
‘We are not Russia. That is why every life is important to us. And we will use all available options to save as many lives as possible and limit Russian terror as much as possible.’
Separately, Ukrainian media quoted Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying the evacuation must take place before winter sets in as the region’s natural gas deposits had been destroyed.
South of the town of Bakhmut, which Russia has named as a prime target in Donetsk, the Ukrainian army said Russian forces had been “partially successful” in gaining control of the Semyhirya settlement by storming it from three directions.
“He settled on the outskirts of the settlement,” the army’s evening report said, referring to Russian troops.
British defense and intelligence officials portrayed Russian forces as struggling to maintain momentum.
The chief of MI6 said on Saturday that: Russia is getting ‘tough’ while the Defense Ministry said the Kremlin is “getting desperate.”
Ukraine has used Western-supplied long-range missile systems in recent weeks to severely damage three bridges over the Dnipro, cutting off the city of Kherson and – in the estimate of British defense officials – leaving the 49th Russian Army highly vulnerable on the west bank of the river. .
The pro-Ukrainian governor of the Kherson region, Dmytro Butriy, said fighting continues in many parts of the region, with Berislav district, just northwest of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, being particularly hard hit.
“In some villages not a single house has been left intact, all infrastructure has been destroyed, people live in cellars,” he wrote on Telegram.
Officials from the Russian-appointed government that governs the Kherson region rejected Western and Ukrainian assessments of the situation earlier this week.
Russia’s defense ministry on Saturday released a list of 50 Ukrainian POWs killed and 73 injured in a Ukrainian military strike involving a US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).
The ministry’s spokesman, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, said “all political, criminal and moral responsibility” rested with Zelensky, “his criminal regime and Washington who supports them.”
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