LUGANSK, June 17. /TASS/. Ukrainian authorities, amid the Russian military’s advance toward Kramatorsk, have evacuated nearly all civilian organizations from the city, military expert Andrey Marochko told TASS. He noted that residents remain reluctant to leave their homes.
Marochko explained that Ukrainian officials began relocating businesses from Kramatorsk - the regional center of the Donetsk Region - to western Ukraine approximately six months ago. Subsequently, Kiev started evacuating civilian organizations from the city. "Almost all civilian organizations have already left Kramatorsk, and the evacuation of civilians is currently underway. However, the local population is understandably hesitant to leave because they are fully aware of what awaits them outside their homes - nothing but hardship. There is substantial evidence that some residents are even returning to the active combat zone because they have nowhere else to go and are being treated as second-class citizens," he said.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that the scale and urgency of evacuating enterprises from Druzhkovka, Kramatorsk, and Slavyansk in the Donetsk People's Republic to western Ukraine suggest that the Kiev regime is preparing for the loss of the entire Slavyansk-Kramatorsk region.