No town in Ukraine's Donetsk region safe for residents: governor

KRAMATORSK: No town in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk is safe for residents, as fighting intensifies between Ukrainian and Russian troops, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told AFP on Thursday.

“There is no place, no town in Donetsk region where it would be safe,” said Kyrylenko, citing latest intelligence data.

“It is extremely dangerous for residents to stay in any places of the region,” he added, given the current scale of fighting around the towns of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk.

Kyrylenko said the overriding priority was now to stop the Russians advancing to the cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk some 80 kilometres (50 miles) further west. He said around 45,000 people remained in the latter city — about one third of the pre-war population.

He added that civilian evacuations were ongoing with 251 people taken out   Wednesday from the area and that deliveries of foodstuffs were continuing throughout the Donetsk region despite power outages and intermittent cuts to supplies of water and gas.