MOSCOW, November 2. /TASS/. The humanitarian mission in Alyoshki was prepared to evacuate far more people than ultimately chose to leave, Russian human rights ombudswoman Yana Lantratova said.

"We simply didn’t have the time to count how many people left Alyoshki, but I can say that we were prepared to evacuate many more people," she told a news conference after the humanitarian mission in Alyoshki.

According to Lantratova, as many as 750 people were given the opportunity to leave. "We prepared that many seats just in case, and a lot of buses returned empty. Of course, far fewer than 750 people left."

In her words, many people were afraid to sign up for evacuation. Moreover, many people did not indicate their ultimate destination - either Russia or Ukraine. "People were afraid, they were scared. They would come up and ask, ‘Can we go too?’ Of course, get on the buses, put all your belongings here, your pets there. The volunteers handed out corresponding tags. We were worried about their belongings, so that there wouldn’t be any provocations," the ombudswoman recalled.

People in other cities greeted the buses, the Russian and Ukrainian ombudspersons came out to talk to them, offered evacuation. "People were standing, waving their hands. We would stop, get out with Dmitry Lubintsev (Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman - TASS), and people would say they also wanted to leave - some to Russia, others to Ukraine. We organized that right away. We didn’t even count. As soon as we saw people, we stopped immediately," Lantratova said.

She pointed to attempts to politicize the process. "All such attempts are null and void. Our mission was humanitarian and its key objective was to ensure that everyone was defended and received assistance. In this context, the mission was successful," she added.