VORONEZH, February 20. /TASS/. The first train with refugees from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, which left on Saturday evening from the Rostov region, arrived in Voronezh, TASS correspondent reports from Voronezh-1railway station.
People will be placed in temporary accommodation centers. The Voronezh authorities reported earlier that around 500 people will arrive with the first train.
The Voronezh region is the second Russian region to receive evacuated residents of Donbass.
The situation along the contact line in eastern Ukraine took a turn for the worse on the morning of February 17. The Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics reported some of the most intensive shelling by Kiev forces in recent months. The shelling damaged some civilian facilities.
On Friday, the leaders of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics announced the evacuation of the republics’ inhabitants to Russia, citing the increasing threat of hostilities.