LUGANSK, February 22. /TASS/. Almost 49,000 people have left the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) for Russia since February 18, with more than 12,000 of them children, the LPR’s territorial defense headquarters announced on Tuesday.

"From 19:00 (coincides with Moscow Time) on February 18 to 08:00 on February 22, a total of 48,808 people crossed the LPR’s border with the Russian Federation, with 12,324 of them children," the LuganskInformCenter reports.

The day before, it was reported that by the evening of February 21, almost 45,000 residents had left the LPR for Russia.

The situation on the contact line in Donbass escalated on February 17. The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republic reported the most intense shelling from Ukraine in recent months. On February 18, the heads of the Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics, Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin, announced the evacuation of residents to Russia due to the aggravation of the situation.