MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/. More than 2 million residents of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics were compelled to abandon their homes between 2014 and the territories’ accession to Russia due to serious threats to their lives, Russian Investigative Committee Spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said.

"More than 2 million residents were forced to leave their permanent homes because of real threats to their lives and unbearable living conditions. From 2014 until the republics became part of Russia, their combined population declined from 6.5 million to 4.5 million as a result of forced resettlement, falling birth rates, rising mortality, and natural population decline," the statement read.