Hundreds of families with children in the city of Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, have been ordered to evacuate due to the increasing intensity of Russian attacks, regional authorities said today, quoted by Agence France-Presse, BTA reported.
"This is a difficult but necessary decision. The security situation is deteriorating, therefore it is unacceptable to leave children exposed to the constant danger of Russian attacks," said the Ukrainian regional governor of Donetsk region, Vadim Filashkin.
Filashkin specified that 525 children and their guardians would be evacuated from Kramatorsk and the surrounding area.
Kramatorsk is the last major city in Donetsk region under the control of Kiev, with Russian forces less than 20 km from its outskirts, according to data from the Ukrainian website "DeepState" (DeepState), which maps the front line and is close to the Ukrainian army.
A Ukrainian official said last month that about 50,000 people still live there, including more than 2,000 children.
In 2014, Kramatorsk was briefly occupied by pro-Russian separatists before being recaptured by Ukraine. In the more than four-year-old war, the city has become a Ukrainian logistics hub on the Donetsk front, AFP notes.