MOSCOW, February 24. /TASS/. The evacuation of residents from the DPR and LPR to Russia continues since the bombardment of residential areas can resume at any moment, Deputy Head of the People’s Militia in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Eduard Basurin said on Thursday.

"It (evacuation - TASS) continues, nothing has changed. <...> The war is not over, and the shelling of communities’ residential areas may resume at any moment," he said on the air of the Rossiya-24 (Russia 24) television news channel.

For his part, DPR leader Denis Pushilin noted that Donetsk residents had nothing to fear, since the security forces would do everything possible to protect them.

On February 18, the heads of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin, announced the evacuation of the republics’ residents to Russia, in particular to the Rostov Region, due to the growing threat of hostilities. On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the sovereignty of the DPR and LPR. Subsequent treaties on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance were signed with the republics’ leaders.