There are currently 154,000 civilians living in the part of Donetsk Oblast controlled by Ukrainian authorities, 8,800 of whom are children. Since May 1, more than 5,000 residents of Donetsk Oblast—including 487 children—have either left the region on their own or been evacuated.
The progress of the evacuation in Donetsk Oblast was discussed during a regular briefing at the regional state administration, attended by representatives of the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Civil Protection, Mobilization, and Defense.
In the active combat zone, 18,000 people remain in 20 communities, including 6 children: two in Druzhkivka and four in Mykolaivka.
Since the beginning of May, the largest numbers of people to leave their homes have been residents of the Kramatorsk and Sloviansk communities—2,400 and 1,700 people, respectively. 500 people have left the Druzhkivka community, 280 from Mykolaivka, 150 from Sviatohirsk, 140 from Kostyantynivka, and 65 from Lyman.
In the four settlements where the forced evacuation of families with children is ongoing, 22 children remain. From May 1 to May 12, 28 children were successfully evacuated from these settlements. Two children were evacuated from Druzhkivka, three from the village of Serhiivka in the Andriivka community, four from Mykolaivka, and 13 from various districts of Sloviansk.
In total, since 2023—when the forced evacuation of families with children was first announced—20,400 minors have been evacuated from the settlements where such evacuations took place.
The main burden of receiving evacuees from Donetsk currently falls on a transit point in the Kharkiv region, through which 200–250 people pass daily. Up to 15 people from Donetsk pass through the transit point in the Dnipropetrovsk region daily.
If people have nowhere to go, they can count on free accommodation in compact settlements across various regions of Ukraine. In April, 250 evacuated Donetsk residents were accommodated free of charge in 16 regions. Since the beginning of May, temporary shelter has been found for another 86 people.
Residents of Donetsk Oblast are urged not to put themselves in danger and to volunteer for evacuation. Every day, up to 15 volunteer teams, 11 police units, and 4 State Emergency Service teams operate in the region, risking their own lives to pick up people and transport them out of dangerous areas, especially from the front lines.
In the parts of Donetsk Oblast controlled by Ukrainian authorities, where the security situation permits, 763 elderly and disabled individuals living alone continue to receive assistance from social workers. Every day, social workers try to persuade these individuals to relocate to safer regions of Ukraine where they will be cared for. However, only 175 of them are considering leaving if the security situation worsens; the rest are currently categorically refusing to leave their homes.