(Reuters) – Civilians in Ukraine’s eastern strategic logistics hub of Pokrovsk have just a week or two to evacuate as Russian troops press towards the city, an official said on Monday.
The Pokrovsk front remains the area with the most intense fighting in eastern Ukraine with a record number of clashes reported last week as the Ukrainian military proceeds with its shock incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
Moscow forces have been steadily inching forward in the Pokrovsk area in recent months. As of last week, they stood just over 10 kilometers from the outskirts of the city, local authorities said.
The head of city military administration Serhiy Dobriak on Monday stressed again that civilians should leave as fast as possible.
Civilians have “a week or two, no more,” Dobriak told Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian Service when asked about time left for evacuations considering the pace of Russian forces’ advance.
Authorities have the capacity to evacuate at least 1,000 people a day, he added, but only 500-600 people per day are currently leaving.
Some 53,000 people, including almost 4,000 children, remain in Pokrovsk and adjacent settlements, the regional governor Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram.
A curfew in settlements lying close to Pokrovsk – Myrnohrad, Selydove, and Novohrodivka – have been tightened, he added.
“The situation at the front is very difficult and it is likely that the curfew will be tightened in other localities as well,” Filashkin said on national television.
The forced evacuation of families with children was starting in the Pokrovsk area, he added.
On Monday, Ukraine’s General Staff reported 145 combat clashes for the last 24 hours, with 45 alone in the Pokrovsk direction.
Another 24 clashes took place in the Toretsk area, some 47 kilometres from Pokrovsk, that has seen an intensified Russian push as well.
“Heavy fighting continues in the Pokrovsk direction. The defense forces are also doing everything necessary to protect Toretsk,” army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Telegram.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Conor Humphries)