Ukraine orders evacuation of families with children from Kramatorsk and Sloviansk

Evacuation order for the last two bastions

Ukrainian authorities have ordered the mandatory evacuation of families with children from Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, which the sources describe as the last two major urban centres still under Ukrainian control in Donetsk region. Donetsk regional governor Vadym Filashkin announced on Thursday, 22 October, that the evacuation zone now covers every locality in the two urban agglomerations. He did not say how many people the order affects. Local authorities had earlier ordered evacuations in several parts of both cities and the surrounding villages. AFP reported the decision. The Kremlin wants to take the whole of Donetsk region, and Russian troops have been advancing slowly for months.

Governor cites daily attacks

Filashkin wrote on Telegram that the security situation keeps getting worse and that Russian forces attack both cities every day. He said that staying there with children is an 'unjustified risk'. According to N-tv's account of his post, the shelling hits residential districts, civilian transport and places where people gather. Special police and civil protection units are to take the families out of the cities, and onward travel to safe regions of Ukraine is to be organised afterwards. Russian forces are between 5 and 15 kilometres from both cities according to various sources, although the cities are not yet on the front line.

How many people remain

In mid-October a local Ukrainian official said almost 350 children were still living in the parts of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk where mandatory evacuations had been ordered. The same official said more than 70,000 people, including about 3,000 children, still live in the Kyiv-controlled areas of Donetsk region. Those figures predate the Thursday announcement, and the sources do not say whether they have changed. None of the reports gave an updated count for the expanded zone.

Recent strikes and the wider offensive

On Tuesday, 20 October, a Russian bombardment killed four people in Kramatorsk. About two weeks earlier, in early October, an air strike killed 30 people travelling on two buses in the same city. The sources say Sloviansk and Kramatorsk are being hit almost constantly with glide bombs, drones and artillery, causing heavy destruction. Ukrainian troops are defending the last part of the Donbas industrial region that Russia does not occupy, and Russian troops have been advancing slowly for months, steadily shrinking the territory Kyiv controls.