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Authorities in Ukraine on Friday said almost 1,100,000 people are in need of evacuation from the frontline regions in Eastern Ukraine, around 84,000 of them being children.

According to the Deputy Minister of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine, Oleksiy Ryabykin, more than 600,000 people have already been evacuated from the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

Even more civilians are in danger amid heavy Russian shelling and military assaults in the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

Many escaping the constant shelling bring only what matters most: family, pets, and a few belongings.

Nataliia, a resident of Novohryshyne village of the Donetsk region, said she managed to take only five dogs and two bags with her during the evacuation.

While Olha and Olena from Dobropillia said they managed to take five parakeets and some household items. “It’s already too frightening to stay in Dobropillia,” Olena’s mother, Tetiana, admits.

Local officials say around 16,000 citizens with limited mobility are in need of evacuation in the Donetsk region.

75-year-old Liubov from Avdiivka, who had spent the past six months living in Myrnohrad, was evacuated with nothing at all. She was injured during shelling. “My arm doesn’t work well,” she says.

“I need surgery. I want to go home, back to Avdiivka. In 2015, I buried my son there, in Avdiivka. A fragment flew in. He was sleeping, having just come back from work, right in the temple, and that was it. His grave is there. I’m 75. All my documents burned,” she lamented.

Charities provide temporary shelter for evacuees

All of these people are now staying at the transit centre in Pavlohrad, where displaced people from the Donetsk region can remain for several days. During this time, volunteers help them restore documents and find housing in safer areas.

People arrive disoriented and scared. Some have lost everything, says Ivan Saverskyi, a representative of the East SOS charity foundation, who meets with the evacuees.

According to Saverskyi, a new tent is currently being set up at the centre to accommodate more people as volunteers prepare for the possibility that by autumn, the flow of evacuees in need of shelter may increase.

“A person can stay here for about five days. There is financial assistance, legal assistance, and, of course, psychological support,” Saverskyi said.

“We also have food kits—not from us directly, but from partner organisations. People can receive them here. We also have a permanent kitchen. A person can take a shower, have breakfast, and stay in a safe place,” he added.

Ukraine’s Donetsk region has become the epicentre of a decade-long attempt by Russian forces to gain full control of it.

Last week, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, warned Russia wanted the remaining 9,000 square kilometres of Donetsk currently under Kyiv’s control, a proposal the Ukrainian leader rejected.

According to Zelenskyy, giving up Donetsk would mean the fall of a bulwark against any future Russian advance.