VOLGOGRAD, July 02. /ITAR-TASS/. The authorities of the southern Russian Volgograd Region have introduced an emergency situation regime due to a high number of refugees from the embattled southeastern regions of Ukraine.
“Governor Andrey Bocharov signed a resolution to introduce this regime from tonight,” gubernatorial spokeswoman Yekaterina Golod told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
The Volgograd Region hosts some 5,000 refugees from Ukraine’s Southeast.
The emergency situation regime will make it possible for relevant local agencies to work more effectively in conditions of an increased flow of temporary migrants and promptly provide all required assistance to them, Golod said.
The work includes efforts to ensure law and order, observance of sanitary requirements, as well as prompt registration of refugees.
Temporary accommodation centers for refugees operate in the cities of Volgograd, Volzhsky, Kamyshin, the Surovikino and Gorodishche districts. A total of 548 people reside in them. Others stay at their relatives and friends’. A total of 921 residents of Ukraine have asked social protection bodies for assistance.
Additional sites for accommodation of refugees have been organized in Volzhsky - an Emergencies Ministry tent camp and a temporary center at a local school. These facilities may host over 1,300 people and will be used should the flow of refugees increase.
“People come from the combat activity zone, they all need support, and our task is to provide conditions for them to temporarily stay in the Volgograd Region,” Golod quoted Bocharov as saying.
Ukrainians continue fleeing the war-torn Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine where the Ukrainian military, units of the “national guard” and the Right Sector ultranationalist movement have been conducting a punitive operation since mid-April against residents demanding federalization of the country and greater rights for Russian language speakers.
Russian Regional Development Minister Igor Slyunyayev said Monday that the number of Ukrainian refugees arriving in Russia from the embattled Southeast of Ukraine may reach 300,000 by the end of this year.
President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with Russian ambassadors and permanent representatives on Tuesday that Russia will provide assistance to refugees from Ukraine.
“Of course, everything that is going on in Ukraine is an internal affair of the Ukrainian state. It pains us to see people dying, especially civilians. As you may know, the number of refugees in the Russian Federation is growing. We will of course provide assistance to all those who need it,” Putin said.