AA/Istanbul
The leader of the pro-Russian separatist “republic” of Donetsk, at war with Ukraine, Denis Pushilin, announced on Friday the evacuation of civilians to Russia, accusing Kiev of preparing an invasion.
Pushilin said in a video posted on his official Telegram account that “from today a massive and centralized departure of the population is being organized to Russia, first of all, women, children and the elderly. must be evacuated”, reports the chain “Euronews”.
For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the payment of 10,000 rubles (about 130 dollars) for each person evacuated from the Donbass region to Rostov (200 km north of Moscow), according to the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.
Peskov added, in a statement to the press, that “the Russian President has also given instructions to provide shelter and food to the evacuees”.
These developments come on the heels of several warnings issued by the West and the UN of an “imminent and catastrophic” Russian attack on Ukraine.
The Donetsk and Luhansk regions are in the conflict-torn eastern Donbass basin and partially occupied by Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.
Moscow and Kiev have been at loggerheads for more than seven years, amid Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and support for separatists loyal to it in the Donbass.
Recently, Western countries accused Russia of massing its forces on the border of the former Soviet republic, while Washington threatened to impose sanctions on Russia if it launched a military offensive against Ukraine.
*Translated from Arabic by Hend Abdessamad
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