Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video on Saturday evening calling on the population to evacuate the Donetsk region in the east of the country, whose cities are the target of bomb attacks by Russian forces.
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“A government decision has been made on mandatory evacuation of the Donetsk region,” said the President of Ukraine. “Please evacuate,” he added in a video address.
“At this stage of the war, terror is Russia’s main weapon,” he said, as Russian attacks on cities in the region claim civilian casualties almost daily.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk earlier announced the mandatory evacuation of the entire population of the Donetsk region, one of the two administrative regions of the Donbass basin, which remains partially under Kyiv’s control.
She justified this decision in statements on television with the destruction of the gas networks and the lack of heating in the region in the coming winter.