Since the autumn of 2022, over 67,000 people have been evacuated from liberated parts of Kherson and Kharkiv oblasts to safer regions, the Reintegration Ministry reported on Oct. 17.
This number includes 40,000 residents of Kherson Oblast in Ukraine's south and 27,000 people from northeastern Kharkiv Oblast, according to the ministry.
Among them reportedly are around 5,000 children and over 350 people with reduced mobility.
Evacuation trains and buses take Ukrainians willing to move from dangerous areas free of charge, the ministry wrote.
“In the host communities, internally displaced persons are provided with free temporary housing. They receive financial, humanitarian, legal, and psychological assistance.”
Ukraine's Armed Forces liberated Kherson and other regional settlements on the Dnipro River’s west bank in November 2022.
Russian forces were pushed to the east bank, from where they have since been firing at the liberated territories, regularly resulting in civilian deaths and injuries.
Meanwhile, in Kharkiv Oblast, Russia is trying to recapture Kupiansk and other settlements liberated by Ukraine’s surprise counteroffensive last autumn. Kupiansk was occupied by Russian forces in 2022 from Feb. 27 to Sept. 10.
Igor Kossov
