Ukraine evacuated some 7,000 civilians from frontline territories in its eastern Donetsk region on Thursday, a source with ties to the regional authorities has told Novaya Gazeta Europe.
Most of the roads and checkpoints in the Donetsk region population centres most affected by Russian shelling — Dobropillya, Slovyansk, Kramatorsk and Druzhkivka — have been covered with anti-drone nets to protect against Russian attacks, the source added.
Approximately 80,000 people are currently estimated to reside in Kramatorsk, the largest city in the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Donetsk region — less than half its pre-war population of 200,000 — and up to 40,000 more are believed to reside in neighbouring Slovyansk.
Meanwhile, nearly all civilians have now left the cities of Kostyantinovka and Pokrovsk, which are the closest to the frontline. Pokrovsk is currently considered to be the most dangerous conflict hotspot and, according to military experts who spoke to Novaya Gazeta Europe earlier this month, is the city most at risk of being abandoned by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the coming months.
On Thursday, Donetsk region Governor Vadym Filashkin announced that the local authorities would forcibly evacuate families with children from the city of Druzhkivka and its surrounding villages as Russian forces continued their advance, estimating that at least 1,800 children were still living in the area.
The evacuation of Donetsk region residents was announced on the eve of the summit between Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday, during which Putin reportedly demanded that Ukraine hand the entire Donetsk region over to Russia as a prerequisite for a peace deal.
Kyiv has repeatedly stressed that ceding any Ukrainian territory to Russia would be unconstitutional, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterating on Monday that any peace deal must be “lasting” to prevent Russia attacking again.
Arriving in Washington to meet with Trump at the White House, Zelensky said that any peace deal Kyiv could agree to must differ from the previous status quo “when Ukraine was forced to give up Crimea and part of our East — part of Donbas — and Putin simply used it as a springboard for a new attack.”