Evacuation from Pokrovsk becomes a perilous journey
Rescue operations in Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, are becoming increasingly challenging, particularly when it comes to evacuating local residents, Pokrovsk Military Administration Head Serhiy Dobriak said on Jan. 28.
Dobriak urged people with relatives in areas near the front line to try to convince their loved ones to relocate to safer areas.
“Over the past week, we’ve seen an increase in places within the city that emergency services can’t access,” Dobriak said. “There are some problematic areas where neither our specialists, the State Emergency Service, nor evacuation teams can reach anymore.”
He added that, under these circumstances, some residents of Pokrovsk must evacuate on foot.
On Jan. 10, Dobriak noted that the front line was just a few kilometers away from Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, and that nearly all of the city’s critical infrastructure had been destroyed.
Two days later, on Jan. 12, Ukrainian military officials reported that Russian forces had changed their tactics in the Pokrovsk area. They are now trying to bypass the city from the south to the west in an attempt to push toward Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Viktor Trehubov, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Khortytsia Operational Group, confirmed that Russian forces aim to encircle Pokrovsk and the neighboring city of Myrnohrad from the south.
On Jan. 25, Dobriak reported that around 7,000 civilians remain in Pokrovsk, with the total population of the community estimated at about 10,000 people.
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