Zelensky Urges Ukrainians to Leave Frontlines in Battle of Donetsk

KIEV – President Ukraine urging civilians to leave the frontline area Donetsk , the scene of fierce clashes with the Russian military. This request comes at the same time as Kiev’s requesting the Red Cross and the United Nations to gain access to its soldiers who are being held captive by Moscow forces.

Zelensky warned in his daily speech that thousands of people, including children, were still in battleground areas in the region. According to the Governor of Donetsk, 6 civilians were killed and 15 injured on Friday (29/7/2022).

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“There has been a government decision on the mandatory evacuation from Donetsk,” Zelensky said, underlining calls by authorities to leave the besieged region in recent weeks.

“Go, we’ll help,” Zelensky said. “At this stage of the war, terror is Russia’s main weapon,” he continued. Official Ukrainian estimates put the number of civilians still living in the vacant Donetsk area between 200,000 and 220,000.

A mandatory evacuation notice posted late Saturday said the coming winter was making it an urgent matter, especially for the more than 50,000 children still in the region.

“They need to be evacuated. You cannot put them in mortal danger in winter without heating, light, without the ability to warm them,” Kiev’s Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporary Occupied Territories said in a statement.

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Zelensky, in his remarks, also once again urged the international community, particularly the United States, that Russia be officially declared a “state sponsor of terrorism”.

The call came a day after a prison holding Ukrainian prisoners of war in the Kremlin-controlled Olenivka was bombed, leaving many people dead, with Kiev and Moscow to blame.

On Saturday, Ukrainian human rights official Dmytro Lubinets said on national television he had asked the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission to go to Olenivka. “The ICRC has submitted a request but has not obtained authorization from Russia,” he said.

(esn)

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