governor Luhansk UkraineSegiy Gaiday, warns that this is the last chance for the residents to escape before Russia launched a new offensive in the eastern region of the country.
Gaiday claimed Luhansk had been the target of Russian strikes after Moscow said it would start focusing its aggression now on “liberating eastern Ukraine” such as the Donbas.
“These few days may be the last chance to save yourself,” Gaday wrote on Facebook on Wednesday (6/4) as quoted by AFP Thursday (7/4).
He later recounted, “All cities in the Luhansk region are under enemy attack. One person was killed in the explosion this morning in the Kreminna.”
Russia’s increasingly intensive attacks in the east have made it difficult for the Ukrainians to evacuate residents.
Don’t wait to be evacuated. Enemy [Pasukan Rusia] trying to get in the way in various ways to save the citizens,” Gaday said.
Before the invasion, the population of the city of Luhansk was 200,000. However, that figure continues to dwindle as daily Russian troop attacks have forced most of the population to flee.
Another city in the same region, Dnipro, also called for a similar warning. The Dnipro government has asked children, women and the elderly to leave the city as soon as possible to avoid Russian attacks.
“The situation in Donbas right now is dire,” said Dnipro city official Borys Filatov, who saw fighting raging in his city.
Filatov also urged residents from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions who arrived in Dnipro to immediately head west. The western region is considered safer from Russian attacks.
“I strongly suggest not to linger and move further west of Ukraine because it is safer there,” he said.
Russian troops claim to have withdrawn troops from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and Chernihiv. They are suspected of being reworked strategies including a new attack focused on eastern Ukraine.
“They will be rearmed, because they have used up a lot of ammunition, and they will be supplied with fuel and all the things they need, food and so on, to launch a new major attack,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday. 4).
Even so, the United States and its allies believe Russia is still ambitious to attack and seize Kyiv after capturing the Donbas and other areas of eastern Ukraine. According to one Western official, the US and allies are preparing for the possibility of Russia trying to re-invade the Kyiv region after completing its objectives in Donetsk and Luhansk.
The assumption arose because the Russian troops had enough manpower and equipment left to attack Kyiv again.
(isa/rds)
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