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Ukraine disrupts evacuation of Debaltsevo civilians — DPR Defense Ministry spokesman

The Ukrainian side had not issued a notification of the opportunity to be evacuated to the DPR, shelling of the evacuation area from the Ukrainian side continued, DPR Defense Ministry spokesman says
Local woman waiting for evacuation from Debaltsevo, Ukraine EPA/ANASTASIA VLASOVA
Local woman waiting for evacuation from Debaltsevo, Ukraine
© EPA/ANASTASIA VLASOVA

MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. Evacuation of Debaltsevo civilians to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has been disrupted through the fault of Ukraine, DPR Defense Ministry spokesman Eduard Basurin told the Donetsk news agency on Friday.

Basurin said the residents had not been told of an opportunity to go to Donetsk.

"Forty people arrived at the place of evacuation. People failed to come as the Ukrainian side had not issued a notification of the opportunity to be evacuated to the DPR. People don’t know anything," he said. "When we entered Debaltsevo, there was a provocation, fire was being delivered from the city."

According to the Donetsk news agency (DNA), a convoy of about 20 nearly empty buses is heading for Donetsk. Shelling of the evacuation area from the Ukrainian side did not stop, with both artillery and sniper fire being delivered," a DNA correspondent reported from the site.