In the last month, the conflict in eastern Ukraine has escalated. Thus, the Ukrainian government has ordered the residents of the border towns in the Region of Donetsk to evacuate immediately.
Alternatively, it is keeping in mind the fact that Russia has continued to make massive early and significant territorial gains in the region and seized over a dozen of the surrounding villages during the launch of an unanticipated attack on the Kharkiv region back in May.
As Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin said, the mass evacuation is for 744 children and their families, who are being transferred to safer zones. “The enemy is shelling the settlements of these communities day by day, and therefore, it is planned to evacuate children with their parents or their legal guardians,” Fishkin said to AFP.
Together with Luhansk, it belongs to the Donbas region, which became the main theatre of the conflict for more than two years. While Russia’s strategy at the beginning of the invasion was to conquer Ukraine in the initial few weeks, it has shifted its objective to the eastern region of Ukraine, in which it is progressively grabbing territory.
Russia has now formally claimed the four territories, namely Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia, as its own regions, even though formal battles are still being fought and Russia does not fully govern the regions.
Filashkin stressed that special attention should be paid to evacuating the children since the enemy actively uses drones in these inhabited areas; according to him, only armored vehicles will be used for transportation. Indeed, such cases should be defended to the utmost; he stated that we must try our best to protect children.
It is noteworthy that the situation in eastern Ukraine is still rather unstable. Both parties continue to struggle for the capture of important settlements.
Thus, Ukrainian forces were able to hold their territories in the initial stages of the invasion and actually launch successful counterattacks, but in subsequent years, dozens of settlements, including critical towns in the region, were lost.
Adding to the situation, introducing the obligatory evacuation of border towns in Donetsk, the civilians are still suffering from the consequences of the conflict, the bloodshed does not end, and it is high time to find a way to settle the conflict peacefully.
