Ukraine’s military commanders in the east of the country reported heavy bombardment on Thursday, amid an apparent turn of the Russian army to redirect military efforts in the Donbas region. “We clearly feel that his transfer [military] “Technology in our direction is starting now,” said Serhiy Haidai, head of Luhansk’s military administration, in a televised address. “And as equipment and personnel are delivered, our enemies are just firing harder, harder. Everything is already involved here: aircraft, artillery, heavy weapons, mortars – all the settlements are being bombed,” he said. Separately, Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the military administration in the Donetsk region, told the Telegram that Russian forces continued bombing the central part of the region at night. “In Maryinka, Krasnohorivka and Novomykhailivka, the enemy used white phosphorus shells again,” he said, referring to ammunition that is either banned or restricted under international law in residential areas. Eleven injured civilians from the Maryinka community, including four children, were taken to Kurakiv city hospital. Scheduled evacuation: Ukrainian and Russian officials say a major evacuation was scheduled for Thursday from the besieged city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine. Haidai, the Luhansk regional governor, said efforts were also being made to evacuate civilians from small towns in his area, even without such agreements with the Russian side. “Our evacuation takes place every day without the so-called humanitarian corridors,” he said. “We do not trust the orcs [a derogatory Ukrainian term for Russian troops] too, and secondly, do not really agree with these corridors. It would be very important for us to evacuate the people from Rubizhne and Popasna – the settlements that are under the maximum fire. “There are battles right in the cities. And it is impossible to evacuate people from these cities, or even to deliver humanitarian aid, because there is so much bombardment there.” Haidai added: “This is how we work as usual, evacuation buses are constantly coming from Kremina, from Lysychansk, from Severodonetsk, partly from Rubizhne, from the area controlled by our defenders. And sometimes our carriers invade the Popasna, where they receive some small groups of people “.
