MOSCOW, April 29. /TASS/. Compulsory evacuation of the population has been announced in three more villages of the Dnepropetrovsk Region in southeastern Ukraine due to the proximity of the front line, the head of the regional administration Sergey Lysak reported.
Earlier on Tuesday, authorities had already issued evacuation orders for four villages in the Mezhova territorial community. Lysak clarified that residents of three additional villages in the Novopavlovsk community would also be evacuated. The effort is scheduled to continue for a month. "We introduced forced evacuation from the frontline territories of the Sinelnikovo district: four villages of the Mezhova community and three in the Novopavlovsk community," Lysak said on his Telegram channel. "Forced evacuation will last for a month," he added.
Previously, residents of these settlements were encouraged to evacuate voluntarily. Now, authorities have made it mandatory for the remaining children to leave the area together with their parents, relatives, or legal guardians. According to Lysak, 26 children are still in the zone. "To coordinate the process, we convened a regional evacuation commission," he noted.
Meanwhile, Russian forces are advancing against Ukrainian positions in several strategically vital areas of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) along the border with the Dnepropetrovsk Region. The General Staff of Ukraine described the battles for Krasnoarmeysk (known as Pokrovsk in Ukraine) as the most intense. Viktor Vodolatsky, first deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on CIS affairs, Eurasian integration, and relations with compatriots, told TASS that Krasnoarmeysk would soon be fully encircled, stating that it is currently trapped in a pocket of fire.
Krasnoarmeysk is a key logistics hub for Ukrainian forces in the DPR. Former Verkhovna Rada MP Igor Mosiychuk (listed by Russia as a terrorist and extremist) stated that losing the town would be a major blow for Ukraine.