Ukrainian authorities have ordered the evacuation of a key city in the Donbas region as Russian forces continue to make gains in the east of the country, despite Ukraine’s ongoing offensive into Russia’s Kursk region.
Officials said families with children living in Pokrovsk and surrounding villages would be forced to leave.
The head of the city’s military government, Serhii Dobriak, said residents had at most two weeks to flee the Russian advance.
The strategically important city is one of Ukraine’s main defensive strongholds and a key logistical hub for Kyiv’s troops on the eastern front.
Donetsk region head Vadym Filashkin said over 53,000 people, including almost 4,000 children, remained in the city. He said authorities had taken the decision to forcibly evacuate children and their parents or guardians.
“When our cities are within range of virtually any enemy weapon, the decision to evacuate is necessary and inevitable.”
Mr Dobriak said the rate of evacuations from the city had risen to about 500 to 600 people a day. He said that while basic services continued to operate, they would likely soon cease to function as the Russian army closes in.
The evacuation order came even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his forces were continuing to make gains during their incursion of Russia’s Kursk region.
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On Monday, President Zelensky said Ukraine had gained control of over 1,250 square km of Kursk’s territory and 92 settlements.
“The Russian border area opposite our Sumy region has been mostly cleared of Russian military presence,” he said on X. “A few months ago, many people around the world would have said this was impossible and crossed Russia’s strictest ‘red line’,” he added.
One of the aims of the incursion is reportedly to divert Russia’s troops away from the Donbas region, relieving pressure on beleaguered Ukrainian troops there.
On Monday, Russian military bloggers claimed Ukraine had blown up a third bridge over the River Seym in the Kursk region. Kyiv did not claim responsibility but the destruction of the bridge would likely further hinder Russian military logistics and help Ukraine consolidate its control over the territory it has seized from Moscow. New pontoon bridges have been seen – temporary, floating crossings, quickly constructed and used in the absence of permanent structures – over the river, apparently constructed by Russian forces near Glushkovo.
The Institute for the Study of War, ISW, think tank said that while Russia appeared committed to a strategy of “gradual creeping advances” in the east, Ukraine’s surprise advance into Kursk showed that seizing the initiative had allowed Kyiv to make significant gains rather than slowly losing a “war of attrition”.
The ISW said it had assessed Ukraine to be present across 800 sq km of Russian territory, though it added that presence did not necessarily equate to control. By contrast, the think tank estimates that Russia gained about 1,175 square km between January and July.
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