The rate of evacuation from the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast, where military action is approaching, has increased: 500-600 people are leaving every day.
The head of the Pokrovsk city military administration, Sergei Dobryak, announced this on air at Radio Liberty.
He predicts that the city will introduce forced evacuation of children this week.
We had 13,700 children before the full-scale war. Now there are still 4,788 children left in the community, that is, a third remains, – he noted. – I think that we will reach this week, that we will also have forced removal of children.
According to Dobryak, approximately 60% of residents leave Pokrovsk on their own, using their own transport.
Yesterday, 490 people left. Of these, only 135 left by train. And the rest left by their own transport, with their belongings, with a trailer, – he noted. – We can easily take out at least 1,000 people. We have the resources for this. So that they leave.
It is noted that, given the timing of the Russian army’s advance, Pokrovsk residents have a week or two to evacuate, so local authorities are calling on people to leave now while it is still possible to do so in a calm manner.
All services and facilities are operating in Pokrovsk. But Dobryak predicts that they will soon have to be shut down.
As of today, everything is working in Pokrovsk, all services, completely. That is, water, electricity, gas, and municipal transport are running. And the store, markets, banks, the court, the voluntary health insurance, the administrative service center. Everything is working for now. But we understand that the week there will be winding down little by little, – he emphasized.
Yesterday, August 18, Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk published a call on her Telegram channel for citizens to evacuate Pokrovsk, Myrnohrad and Selydove in Donetsk Oblast. In particular, she noted that “the presence of civilians there also interferes with the work of the Defense Forces.”
Source: Radio Liberty
Source: Racurs

I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.