- Title: UKRAINE: Donetsk residents flee to Russia amid ongoing fighting in region
- Date: 16th July 2014
- Summary: DONETSK, UKRAINE (JULY 16, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF REFUGEES BOARDING BUSES, PREPARING TO LEAVE FOR RUSSIA (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) REFUGEE COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVE, DARIA MOROZOVA, SAYING: "So far we have managed to evacuate about 2,500 people. What we see here today is people from Donetsk and other hot spots, such as Torez, Snizhne, Makiivka, Donetsk, Karlivka, as well a
- Embargoed: 31st July 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Ukraine
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: Conflict
- Reuters ID: LVA3Z6H8RCISCMA0ML476GQDO5LO
- Story Text: Hundreds of residents of Donetsk and other eastern Ukrainian cities continued to flee to Russia on Wednesday (July 16) amid ongoing fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels in the region.
People queued outside the busses in Donetsk on Wednesday morning, waiting for boarding before heading out of the eastern Ukraine as the crisis in the regions continues to deepen.
Ukrainian war planes bombarded separatists along a broad front on Saturday (July 12), inflicting huge losses, Kiev said, after President Petro Poroshenko said "scores and hundreds" would be made to pay for a deadly missile attack on Ukrainian forces.
Donetsk refugee committee representative Daria Morozova said that some 2.500 have been already evacuated from the city.
"So far we have managed to evacuate about 2,500 people. What we see here today is people from Donetsk and other hot spots, such as Torez, Snizhne, Makiivka, Donetsk, Karlivka, as well as some people from Slaviansk, Petrovka, and other towns in Donetsk region. Some 450-500 will be evacuated today, depending on the available space," Morozova said.
The Ukrainian military, following the Slaviansk victory, says it has readied a plan to oust the rebels now from Donetsk, a city of 900,000 people where separatist forces are dug in.
Poroshenko has said the military plan will be aimed at protecting civilians there and had appeared to rule out the use of air strikes and artillery to crush the rebels.
Many refugees say they are forced to escape Ukraine as they fear for their safety.
"I am scared for my children. If not for them, I would have stayed," Donestk resident Yulia said."
When asked if she knew what she was going to do in Russia, she said she didn't know.
"All the chaos and genocide that is taking place here made me pack and leave. I just want to save my life and my children," another refugee Lyudmila said.
After a pro-Western revolt in Kiev ousted a Moscow-backed president in February, Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and pro-Russian separatists seized strategic buildings in towns in the Russian-speaking east, setting up "people's republics" and declaring they wanted to join Russia.
More than 200 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed since then, and hundreds of civilians and rebels have also died. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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