Thousands flee eastern Ukraine as Russia steps up attacks

 

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Thousands of people are trying to escape Ukraine's Donbas region as Russia shifts the focus of its war to eastern Ukraine.

Families have been queueing at Kramatorsk central station for days and some have been saying goodbye to loved ones staying behind.

In Donbas, eastern Ukraine:

• Thousands of people are trying to escape Donbas ahead of Russia's expected offensive in eastern Ukraine
• Five humanitarian corridors are set to open to move people in parts of the Luhansk region away from the front line
• Ukrainian officials are appealing to people in the area to "take this opportunity" to flee "while it is safe"
• Russian forces are trying to surround Ukrainian forces to take control of the entire Donbas - which is made up of the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk

Elsewhere in Ukraine:

• More than 400 people are missing from the town of Hostomel, a local official says. The town bore the brunt of Russian advances on Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, along with Bucha and Irpin
• We've heard from a survivor from Bucha, where evidence suggests Russian troops executed innocent civilians. She says she wishes she had been killed alongside her husband

Global developments

• European Union leaders are discussing what further measures they could impose on Russia to damage its war effort. Proposals include a ban on importing Russian coal - but some senior leaders say oil and gas also need to be banned
• Other Western allies, including the US and UK, are expected to impose extra sanctions on Russia today
• The Russian president says sanctions are the price his country must pay for freedom
• Pope Francis has condemned the "massacre" of civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, which Russia continues to deny despite evidence of mass graves

• Russian forces focus attacks on eastern and southern Ukraine

  Russian forces continue to shell cities in eastern and southern Ukraine, and strike targets elsewhere with missiles. Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv, saw intense shelling overnight.

  There were also further artillery attacks in parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions where fighting is expected to intensify in the weeks ahead, as Russia regroups its forces.

  According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Russia targeted Ukrainian army positions and civilian infrastructure in Borivske, Novoluhanske, Solodke, Marinka and Zolota Nyva — in the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

• Russian forces have also been continuing their offensive against Mariupol, which it has blockaded and relentlessly bombarded for over a month. The latest intelligence update from the UK's Ministry of Defence said the humanitarian situation in the city was "worsening".

  It said: "Most of the city's 160,000 residents have no light, communication, medicine, heat or water. Russian forces have prevented humanitarian access, likely to pressure defenders to surrender."

  Elsewhere, Russia has destroyed an oil depot near the city of Dnipro, and hit targets in the Vinnytsia region of central Ukraine, and Radekhiv in the west.

• In eastern Ukraine, some don't blame Putin for the war

• Thousands of people who live in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine are fleeing west, as Russia is stepping up its offensive.

  There are still some signs of life in the villages, towns and cities we travel through in this region of eastern Ukraine - but they're quickly emptying out.

  We visited the town of Lysychansk, about a mile from the front line. It's one of many residential areas to have been hit by Russian artillery over the past few days.

  Shattered glass and blocks of concrete lay strewn across the streets, along with the twisted steel remnants of the shelling. We could still hear the occasional rumble of artillery in the distance.

  A Ukrainian soldier led us through the mostly-deserted streets to an underground shelter.

  Inside in a gloomy room we talked to two old women, who were trying to keep warm in front of an electric fire.

  We asked them who they thought was responsible for shelling their town - astonishingly, neither blamed Russia or President Vladimir Putin. They thought their grim situation was as much the fault of Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky.

  The women, who'd grown up in the Soviet era, seemed to share Putin's nostalgia for the past.

  Our translator explained they'd probably watched and believed what they'd seen and heard from Russian state media.

  This wasn't the view of everyone we spoke to, but it highlights the closer ties eastern Ukraine has to Russia - as well as a generational divide.

• Source: BBC