Police report "unusual case" of evacuation: More than 100 people evacuated from Avdiivka outskirts

Over the past week, more than a hundred people have been evacuated from the occupied outskirts of Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast. This is an "unusual case" of evacuation, which took place in cooperation with the Ukrainian military. 

Source: Pavlo Diachenko, inspector of the communication department of the Donetsk Oblast police and a member of the White Angel police evacuation group, on the air of Radio Liberty 

Details: The police officer explained that the operation was risky due to constant bombardment by Russian troops. People took white rags and walked to the centre of Avdiivka under fire. 

Quote: "People were local; they knew where to go. Everything was more or less planned. We understand that it is impossible to ensure one hundred percent security, especially in the context of such a devastating war and incredible bombardment by Russian military formations. Fortunately, everything was successful, and people are relatively safe." 

Details: Diachenko does not disclose the details of how exactly he communicated with people in the occupied territories. However, he notes that there was no direct communication with them because the Russian military took away their phones. 

He also adds that, according to people's testimonies, the Russians mistreated the local population. The police have opened a criminal investigation and are now documenting the crimes of the Russian military. 

"When the Russians came to this street, they just drove them (the residents – ed.) into a small basement. There were 13 people there, one of them was a very old lady, she needed care, and all the people... And they kept them in the basement for quite a long time; they didn't even let them go outside to the toilet, this didn’t happen. And they all stayed there, not understanding what was happening at all," the police officer said. 

The law enforcement officer did not specify what was happening in these territories now, whether they were occupied or not. 

Background: Russian troops became more active near Avdiivka in October 2023. The positions of Ukraine's Armed Forces and the city itself are under attack by a large number of tanks and other armoured vehicles supported by aviation and artillery. The Russian army is continuing its attempts to capture the city, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reports. As the head of the city's military administration said, they managed to evacuate about five to seven people a day in December.

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