"Evacuate if you can": authorities tell residents of two oblasts

ROMAN PETRENKO — WEDNESDAY, 6 APRIL 2022, 14:09

Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk and the military administrations have encouraged residents of Donetskaya and Luhanskaya Oblasts to evacuate while they still have the chance. 

Source: Vereshchuk on air during an all-Ukraine telemarathon, being quoted by the Ministry of Integration of Temporary Occupied Territories of Ukraine

Quote from Irina Vereshchuk: "The leaders of the military administrations of Luhanshchyna, and Donbas are asking the local residents to leave the borders of the oblasts and are doing everything they can to ensure an organised evacuation. 

It’s urgent that civilians evacuate now because later they will find themselves under fire and they will be endangering their lives. They will not be able to do anything about this, and we will be unable to help, because a ceasefire will be practically impossible at that point. 

It’s necessary to evacuate while this opportunity exists. While it still exists."

Details: Vereshchuk explained that the withdrawal of the occupying forces from the Kyevskaya and Chernyhovskaya Oblasts was not an act of goodwill ahead of another round of negotiations, as Russian officials suggest. It was a response to the steely determination of the Ukrainian army, the Ukrainian authorities and the whole Ukrainian people.