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Magomed Darsigov, the transport coordinator at the operational headquarters of the Rostov region, told RBC that buses are on duty around the border checkpoints around the clock, taking arrivals to temporary accommodation points or to trains on which they follow to other regions. A total of 200 buses and 400 drivers are involved.
Rostov authorities told how refugees from Donbass are transported Politics
A high alert regime was introduced in the Ryazan region in anticipation of refugees from the Donbass.
President Vladimir Putin said during a telephone conversation with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that the reason for the deterioration of the situation in eastern Ukraine was the provocations of the military, controlled by Kiev.
The state of emergency was introduced in the Voronezh region due to the growing number of refugees from the Donbass.
Refugees told about the queues and "sorting" of men at the borders of the DPR Society
About 950,000 residents of the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR have applied for a Russian passport, said State Duma deputy from the Rostov region Viktor Vodolatsky. In total, 775,620 residents of Donbass have acquired Russian citizenship by February 15, the deputy continued, and another 170,000 are being processed.
The Rostov region received about 40,000 refugees from Donbass, Alexander Chupriyan, acting HEAD of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, said. 92 temporary accommodation centers have been deployed in the region. About 2 thousand people were taken by train to the Voronezh and Kursk regions. According to Chupriyan, the authorities of the unrecognized DPR and LPR will provide the ministry with evacuation schedules on a daily basis. On the second day of the mass evacuation from the territory of Donbass, many kilometers of traffic jams formed at the border, refugees complained of confusion and many hours of waiting.“Sentry, women run around in old age”: how refugees from Donbass are met Politics The Ministry of Emergency Situations of the DPR stated that as of the morning of February 19, 6.6 thousand people were taken out of the self-proclaimed republic, of which 2.4 thousand were children. Almost 29,000 residents have left the territory of the LPR since February 18. Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Tyumen Region, Amur Region, Altai Territory, Novgorod and Jewish Autonomous Regions have joined the list of Russian regions ready to accept refugees. The head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said that the European Union does not believe the warnings of the authorities of the DPR and LPR about the preparation of an offensive by Ukraine. The authorities of the unrecognized republics explained the beginning of the evacuation by this.
How did the evacuation begin?
On February 18, against the background of the aggravation of the situation in the conflict zone in the Donbass, the authorities of the LPR and DPR announced the evacuation of the civilian population to Russia. The head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, was the first to announce the evacuation. He said that President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky would soon give the military an order to launch an offensive in the Donbass and an invasion of the territory of the DPR and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). According to Pushilin, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) “are in combat formations and are ready for the forcible capture of Donbass.”video Following him, the head of the LPR, Leonid Pasechnik, announced the evacuation. He also warned about the preparation of the Ukrainian offensive. Pasechnik also turned to "all men capable of holding weapons in their hands" with a request to "stand up for the defense of their land."
Official Kyiv, however, refutes the preparation of the offensive. Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Valery Zaluzhny said that the “occupation authorities” of the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass are using the population to escalate and that the information about the offensive is a lie. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmitry Kuleba on his Twitter said that Kyiv does not plan any attack on the republics of Donbass. According to him, Ukraine is counting on a diplomatic settlement of the conflict. He called statements from Donetsk and Luhansk part of “Russian propaganda”. The population of the DPR is about 2.2 million people, the LPR - 1.4 million.