Ukrainian military urges Donetsk residents to evacuate, clearing way for advance

The Washington Post: 04. August 2014
By Carol Morello


Donetsk, August 3rd 2014

KIEV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian military on Monday urged residents of Donetsk to evacuate amid reports of increased rebel attacks on civilians and to clear the way for government troops to advance on one of the insurgency’s biggest strongholds.

The military has opened extra humanitarian corridors out of eastern Ukraine’s regional capital, and the government will help evacuees to find temporary shelter, said Andriy Lysenko, a military spokesman.

Over the weekend, government troops cut off a northern route that had been used by the pro-Russian separatists who control the city to bring in reinforcements of fighters and supplies, Lysenko said. The military now has the city, ruled by the rebels’ self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, almost completely encircled.

Here's the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council's map of the military situation on August 4.

As the noose around Donetsk has tightened, there have been reports that the pro-Russian rebels are ordering residents to take up arms and fight against the Ukrainian army, Lysenko said. According to Lysenko, there also have been reports of increasing chaos — of civilians being kidnapped or killed and having their homes expropriated by rebels.

The military has made no secret of its intent to eventually move on Donetsk and “liberate” the entire city from the rebels, who have been in control since April. Though Lysenko declined to provide a specific timetable, the military’s encouragement of civilians to flee suggested that a more direct assault on the city was drawing closer.

In recent weeks, the military has arranged for safe corridors for residents in the battle zone of eastern Ukraine, but this is the first time that it has so overtly urged residents to get out, and quickly.

A pro-Russian fighter gestures near a body of a community service worker who was killed during the shelling outside a residential apartment house in Donetsk.

Shelling in the city grows more intense by the day, and many areas are without electricity or running water.

Elsewhere in eastern Ukraine, monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) vacated an area Monday near the Ukrainian border with Russia’s Rostov region. They cited safety concerns, with heavy fighting in the area.

Ukrainian troops patrol near the eastern Ukrainian city of Debaltseve in the Donetsk region August 3. 

OSCE monitors accompanied a group of Dutch and Australian experts Monday to the crash site where Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 went down July 17 after being hit by a surface-to-air missile while flying over rebel-held territory. The Boeing 777 was carrying 298 passengers and crew en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

The group has several sniffer dogs to assist in the search for more victim remains. On Sunday, the Dutch-led team said it would not deploy drones to look for remains and personal possessions in some wooded areas, because it might arouse suspicions among the rebels who control the site and who provide the experts with security.