Russian forces are making it increasingly difficult to leave the occupied territories, according to the Ukrainian government
People arriving from Kherson load their belongings onto a wagon for onward evacuation deep into Russia at the Dzhankoi railway station in Crimea on Oct. 21, 2022. (Photo by STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images)
Russian forces are making it difficult for people to leave the occupied territories by banning evacuation vehicles from leaving some regions, Ukraine’s government said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Right now, evacuation is too difficult. The possibility of leaving the temporarily occupied territories is almost exhausted,” according to the Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories.
“In fact, the occupants have stopped allowing evacuation vehicles to leave the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions. They put up all kinds of obstacles: they require drivers’ licenses, they use the fingerprinting procedure, they check all the documents, phones, cars, etc.”
“As a result, only a small number of people managed to leave in almost a month. Before, the same number of people left in one or two days,” the statement said.
In a post on Telegram earlier on Tuesday, the displaced mayor of Russian-held Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, claimed that only 139 people had been allowed to leave the occupied parts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions. to the city of Zaporizhia on Monday, while on Sunday “they did not release a single person,” he said.
The road through the Russian-controlled checkpoint at Vasylivka into Zaporizhia has been a key route for civilians fleeing the occupied territory.
“I remind residents that there are alternative ways to get out: via the Crimea or via Novoazovsk in the Donetsk region,” Fedorov said. “The road may take a long time, but given the risk of death in the occupied territories, it is necessary to evacuate.”
Earlier this month, CNN reported that only a handful of people had been able to leave Russian-occupied territory through Vasylivka since Russian President Vladimir Putin declared he was annexing four Ukrainian regions, which is illegal under international law. .
