KYIV: Military authorities in the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk on Friday urged civilians to speed up their evacuation because the Russian army is quickly closing in on what has for months been one of Moscow’s key targets in the war.
The call for people to get out as soon as possible came as Kyiv’s forces are trying to divert the Kremlin’s military effort from the front line in Ukraine to Russian soil by launching a bold incursion across the border into Russia’s Kursk region.
The urgency also underscored the high-stakes gamble Ukraine is making by taking the war into Russia with its ongoing Kursk assault that started Aug. 6.
The attack is a daring attempt to change the dynamics of the 2½-year conflict, but it could backfire and leave Ukraine’s shorthanded defense on the front line at the mercy of Russia’s push. The Kremlin’s forces have had battlefield momentum and superior forces in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region since the spring.
Ukraine is wagering it can cope with the strain on its resources in Kursk without sacrificing Donetsk. Russia apparently reckons it can contain the incursion without needing to ease up in Donetsk.
“Both cannot be right,” Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Thursday. “The outcome hangs in the balance.”
Russia’s slow slog across Donetsk this year has been costly in terms of troops and armor, but its gains have mounted up.
Pokrovsk, which had a prewar population of about 60,000, is one of Ukraine’s main defensive strongholds and a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region. Its capture would compromise Ukraine’s defensive abilities and supply routes. It would bring Russia closer to its stated aim of capturing the Donetsk region than ever before.
Evacuations in the Donetsk region around Pokrovsk have become increasingly urgent in recent weeks.
Pokrovsk officials said in a Telegram post Friday that Russian troops are “advancing at a fast pace. With every passing day there is less and less time to collect personal belongings and leave for safer regions.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had warned on Thursday that Pokrovsk and other nearby towns in the Donetsk region were “facing the most intense Russian assaults.”
“Priority supplies — everything that is needed — are being sent there,” Zelensky said on X.
That same day, authorities told people to start evacuating the town.
Pokrovsk officials were meeting with the residents to provide them with logistical details on the evacuation. People were offered shelter in western Ukraine, where they will be hosted in dormitories and separate houses prepared for them.
“As the front line approaches Pokrovsk, the need to move to a safer place is becoming increasingly urgent,” the local administration said.
In Kursk, meanwhile, Ukrainian troops have taken full control of Sudzha, Zelensky said Thursday. It’s the largest Russian town to fall to Ukraine’s forces since the start of their incursion 10 days ago, and the success raised Ukrainian spirits while embarrassing the Kremlin.
A family who fled from Sudzha showed on Russian state TV the shattered windows of their car, the result of an attack while on the road.
“At the turn they were shooting, there were mines, we drove around the mines. Then we were driving further, the drone hit us in Bondarevka,” said Nikolai Netbayev.
Ukrainian officials urge civilians to evacuate eastern town of Pokrovsk as Russian troops close in
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Ukrainian officials urge civilians to evacuate eastern town of Pokrovsk as Russian troops close in
- The urgency also underscored the high-stakes gamble Ukraine is making by taking the war into Russia with its ongoing Kursk assault
- The attack is a daring attempt to change the dynamics of the 2½-year conflict
Spain to ban social media for children under 16, prime minister tells WGS
- Pedro Sanchez: Our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone
- Sanchez: A space of addiction, abuse, pornography, manipulation, violence. We will no longer accept that, and we will protect them from the digital Wild West
DUBAI: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Tuesday that his country will seek to ban children aged under 16 from using social media platforms.
Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, Sanchez outlined a six-point plan he said would help restore the “promised land” it once was.
“Our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone,” he said.
“A space of addiction, abuse, pornography, manipulation, violence. We will no longer accept that, and we will protect them from the digital Wild West.”
The announcement follows a similar ban by Australia last year. French lawmakers also passed a bill last week that would ban those aged under 15 from accessing social platforms. The UK has also announced it is considering new controls.
To enforce the ban, the Spanish government will reportedly seek to order platforms to put in place stringent age verification methods. It also plans to introduce a new bill next week to hold social media executives accountable for illegal and hateful content.
Sanchez added that Spain had joined five other European countries that he labelled the “Coalition of the Digitally Willing” to coordinate and enforce cross-border regulation.
