General Staff: Russian occupation authorities conducting “evacuation" from Tokmak

Russian occupation authorities in Zaporizhzhia Oblast are moving their officials, local collaborators as well as children with education workers from Tokmak to Berdiansk deeper into the occupied territories, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on May 8.

Moscow-installed proxies threaten the parents to hold back their children in school in case of refusal to "evacuate" them, the General Staff said.

Zaporizhzhia Oblast's city of Berdiansk is located on the Azov Sea coast, around 100 kilometers southeast of Tokmak.

The Ukrainian military added that there were queues for fuel in the occupied Tokmak as local drivers have been warned of no upcoming fuel deliveries.

A Russian police department in the occupied village of Vesele has been closed, according to the report. Local occupation authorities were destroying the department's documentation the day before the closure.

Earlier, Yevgeny Balitsky, the head of Russian occupation authorities in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, announced the partial displacement of residents of 18 front-line settlements due to alleged "increased enemy's shelling" of the Russian-occupied settlements.

Last fall, amid Ukraine's counteroffensive in Kherson Oblast, Russian occupation authorities were conducting a forced relocation campaign in the region, also calling it "evacuation."

Ukraine is expected to launch a major counteroffensive in the coming weeks. The long-awaited counteroffensive is seen as a critical juncture to take back Ukrainian territory under Russian control.

Mayor: Traffic jam between Russian-occupied Melitopol and Crimea due to evacuation

A huge queue of cars and trucks, with some waiting for five hours, could be seen obstructing the Chonhar checkpoint between Russian-occupied Melitopol and Crimea, exiled Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov said on May 6.

Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk