“Everything is organized. Full support and full assistance – both logistics and payments. We only need a decision from the people themselves, who have not yet made the decision themselves,” he said in his evening address.
“The faster we do it, the more people will leave the Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill,” he said.
Zelensky urged Ukrainians who have a chance to speak to “those who are still in the fighting areas of Donbass” to convince their compatriots of the need to leave, “especially if they are families with children.”
The Ukrainian president emphasized that “hundreds of thousands of people and tens of thousands of children” are still in the Donbass region at the moment.
52,000 children in the Donetsk region
There is no gas supply in the Donetsk region at the moment and “there will be no heating in the Donetsk region in winter,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshuk told Ukrainian media early Saturday.
Vereshchuk said the Ukrainian government has set up a coordination center to help evacuate residents of the Donetsk region to safer areas in Ukraine.
She added that the evacuation will take place by trains and buses.
There are “52,000 children in the Donetsk region” at the moment, Vereshuk said.
Vereshchuk added that people who refuse to evict will have to sign a “certain form of refusal of mandatory eviction,” noting that they understand all the consequences of staying in combat zones and take personal responsibility for their lives.
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