Parents hide children from mandatory evacuations as Ukraine says Russia advancing fast on key city

CNN — 

Parents are hiding their children from local authorities to avoid mandatory evacuation in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, a strategically important location, amid warnings that Russian forces are advancing rapidly.

Communities in and around Pokrovsk are being urged to flee within the next two weeks as Russian forces push forward – which comes despite Ukraine’s own incursion into Russian territory that has taken Moscow by surprise.

On Thursday, Russia insisted it had thwarted another Ukrainian attempt to push into the border region of Bryansk, as Ukraine continues to make advances into the Kursk region.

In Ukraine’s Donetsk region, children with their parents or other legal guardians will be forcibly evacuated from certain districts, including Pokrovsk, according to the ministry responsible for the reintegration of regions that previously fell under Russian control.

Pokrovsk is not a large city – about 60,000 people lived there before the war, and many have left since the start of the full-scale invasion. But it serves as a key hub for the Ukrainian military thanks to its easy access to Kostiantynivka, another military center.

The Ukrainian military said Wednesday that Pokrovsk is now “the hottest” front of the war. Troops are repelling Russian attacks and fighting in multiple locations.

The entire community encompasses Pokrovsk City, nearby Myrnohrad town and 39 surrounding villages, according to the Pokrovsk City military administration.

Roughly 600 to 700 people have been evacuating daily, the administration said. On Thursday, the national rail network said at least 371 people evacuated from Prokrovsk by train, with the network having to add nine carriages to accommodate the large crowds.

“Don’t wait. It will not get better, it will only get worse. Leave,” was the stark warning from local official Yurii Tretiak, head of the military administration in the town of Myrnohrad, which is now less than 3 miles from the frontline.

But Tretiak said many people are still reluctant to leave – even going so far as to hide their children from local authorities, promoting the military administration to make house visits.

“We have cases when parents hide their children. Today (August 20) we will have a meeting with the police to discuss how we will work with such people, how we will search for such parents who hide children and give false information that the children have long since left,” he said, noting that dangers are increasing with some areas of town facing daily attacks.

“Those who hesitated a week ago have mostly decided and are leaving en masse,” he said, noting that for residents who have yet to evacuate, “the most common argument is that ‘I have nowhere to go’ or ‘no one needs me.’”

“The enemy is advancing faster than expected,” Tretiak said in a radio interview on Tuesday. “So we are trying to do as much as possible to evacuate people by the end of the week.”

Ukrainian troops use the road connecting the two to resupply the front lines and evacuate casualties toward Dnipro.