MELITOPOL, May 5. /TASS/. The decision to relocate residents from the most heavily shelled areas in the Zaporozhye Region has not caused any kind of uproar among the population, with all services in the region working routinely, the region’s acting governor Yevgeny Balitsky said on Friday.

"We have just held a working meeting about the day’s events. I can say that all services worked smoothly. There is no panic. All services - utilities, the police, the prosecutor’s office, the commandant’s office, the entire administration - are operating as usual," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

According to Balitsky, people understand that this decision is necessary and "it is not a cause of extra worry."

Balitsky said earlier on Friday that residents of 18 settlements will be temporarily relocated to safer places due to intensified shelling by Ukrainian troops. According to the region’s deputy prime minister, Andrey Kozenko, around 70,000 people are to be evacuated. The evacuation is voluntary, he stressed.