MELITOPOL, May 5. /TASS/. About 70,000 people are expected to be relocated from settlements in the Zaporozhye Region that keep coming under fire, the region’s Deputy Prime Minister on economic issues Andrey Kozenko told TASS.
"In fact, about 70,000 people are planned to be relocated. So far, we say that children and families with children are high-priority groups. The relocation process has already begun in the Pologi District, with people being relocated to the city of Berdyansk. About 500 people have been relocated so far. We will control the process as assembly points have been set up," he noted.
Residents from settlements located near the line of contact are being evacuated on a voluntary basis, the deputy prime minister noted. Kozenko added that people were being relocated to the southern districts of the Zaporozhye Region. Schools will be closed in the settlements where people are being relocated from but medical facilities will remain open, Kozenko said.
All government agencies in the Zaporozhye Region continue to operate normally. "The situation remains under control. I attended a meeting with law enforcement officials and all of them are on the ground, with all government agencies operating normally," he emphasized.
The Zaporozhye Region’s Acting Governor Yevgeny Balitsky said earlier that residents of 18 towns and villages would be temporarily relocated deeper into the region due to intensified shelling by Ukrainian troops.