More than 1,500 civilians from towns in southeastern Ukraine’s Zaporijia region have been displaced by Russian forces, the region’s Kremlin-mandated governor Yevgeny Balitsky said on Sunday.
“1,552 people, including 632 minors, 145 patients of the psychoneurological center and 10 people with reduced mobility, have already been relocated in an organized manner from the territory of five districts and two frontline cities”, Yevgeny Balitsky wrote on his Telegram channel.
In addition, he added, some citizens have decided to go out of areas considered dangerous only in private vehicles.
Balitski announced last Friday the displacement of the most vulnerable populations from 18 towns close to the frontline as a result of intensified bombardment by Ukrainian forces.
As specified at the time by the deputy prime minister for the economy of the annexed region, Andrei Kozenko, about 70,000 civilians will be relocated, in an operation Kiev described as a forced transfer.
Among the evacuated towns is Energodar, which is home to the Zaporijia Nuclear Power Plant, as well as Tokmak, an important communications center in the center of Zaporijia, where Russia fears an attack as part of the counter-offensive it is preparing.
Russian troops control about 70% of the territory of Zaporijia, neighboring Kherson province, in whose regional capital, controlled by Ukrainian troops, a curfew is in effect until 3 a.m. Monday.
The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expressed increasing concern about the safety of the Zaporijia nuclear power plant as the situation becomes potentially dangerous.
“The situation in the area around the Zaporijia nuclear power plant is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous”said IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi in a warning this Saturday, ahead of the latest attack report, according to the Associated Press agency (AP).
The concerns of the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog were heightened after the governor of the Russian-occupied territory, Yevgeny Balitsky, ordered the evacuation of civilians from that area on Friday.
The nuclear power plant is close to the front lines of fighting and Ukrainian authorities said a 72-year-old woman was killed and three others injured when Russian forces fired more than 30 projectiles at Nikopol, a nearby Ukrainian town.
According to an update on Facebook, the General Staff said the first displaced citizens obtained Russian citizenship after Moscow captured the city at the beginning of the war, and were expelled to the coast of the Sea of Azov, occupied by Russia, about 200 years ago. kilometers to the southeast.
Since October, Russia has regularly bombed Ukraine’s main energy installations with missiles and drones, leaving millions of people without electricity or heat.
Source: DN
