On Thursday, October 9, the Ukrainian authorities ordered the evacuation of families with children living in certain neighborhoods of Kramatorsk, the last major city in the Donbass under kyiv’s control, located about twenty kilometers from the front line and regularly hit by Russian attacks.
“Due to the deterioration of the security situation in some territories of the urban community of Kramatorsk, a mandatory evacuation of families with children has been announced,” the city council said on Telegram. This “immediate” measure also applies to two neighboring towns, according to the same source.
From 150,000 to 53,000 inhabitants
Kramatorsk and its surroundings are subject to “regular attacks, in particular with short-range drones”, which causes “the destruction of residential buildings and civil infrastructure” and “makes it impossible” for the activity of social and medical services, the municipal council added.
The city of Kramatorsk had around 150,000 inhabitants before the large-scale Russian invasion launched in February 2022. According to the regional governor, the population was 53,000 last July.
The city was occupied by Moscow-backed pro-Russian separatists for several months in 2014, before being recaptured by kyiv forces. The Russian army is slowly advancing in eastern Ukraine from 2023, at the cost of heavy losses.
Source: BFM TV
