LUGANSK, October 16. /TASS/. The evacuation of civilians from the city of Kupyansk in the Kharkov Region by Ukraine is an indication that Kiev realizes that Russia liberating the city is only a matter of time, the head of the Kharkov military-civilian administration, Vitaly Ganchev, told TASS.

"They realize that sooner or later the city will be liberated. Naturally, they are making every effort to evacuate, first and foremost, the administration, the authorities, the security services and, as I already mentioned, the civilian population," he said.

According to Ganchev, this is not the first time that the Ukrainian authorities have carried out a mandatory evacuation, "when they clear the settlements from civilians who can see the unprecedented lawlessness of the Ukrainian nazis and mercenaries."

The Kiev-appointed head of the Kharkov military-civil administration, Oleg Sinegubov, said on Tuesday that the regional authorities had announced mandatory evacuation of all civilians from Kupyansk and three neighboring territorial communities.