MOSCOW, June 22, 10:44 /ITAR-TASS/. Humanitarian disaster in southeastern Ukraine is snowballing, Anatoly Kuznetsov, a deputy director of Russia’s Federal Migration Service said Sunday.

“Southeastern Ukraine is in the grips of a humanitarian disaster and it has a tendency towards a sharp growth,” he said at a meeting of a governmental workgroup for emergency situations response.

More than 18,000 Ukrainian citizens who fled the country’s southeastern Lugansk and Donetsk regions are currently staying in the regions of Russia adjoining the Ukrainian-Russia border. Another 2,000 or so people have left for other regions.

“People are fleeing the war,” Kuznetsov said. “Some of them are waiting for changes and hope to return while others have decided to stay here and are first in their decision.