There are still 84,500 residents living in the part of Donetsk Oblast controlled by Ukrainian authorities, including more than 4,000 children. Since the beginning of September, 10,900 Donetsk residents have left the region either on their own or through evacuation.
The progress of the evacuation in the Donetsk region was discussed during a regular briefing at the regional state administration, attended by representatives of the Department of Civil Protection, Mobilization and Defense, the Children’s Services Agency, and the Department of Social Protection.
The largest number of people remain in the Sloviansk community—over 33,000 residents—as well as in the Kramatorsk community—nearly 25,000. Since the beginning of September, the population of the Druzhkivka community has decreased by 740 residents; currently, 1,900 residents are registered there.
The largest number of children live in the Sloviansk (1,920 minors) and Kramatorsk (1,032 minors) communities.
As of September 15, 387 children remained in eight settlements where the forced evacuation of families with children is ongoing: 203 children in certain settlements of the Kramatorsk community and certain districts of Kramatorsk; 139 in certain districts of Sloviansk; and 45 in the Svyatogorsk community. The Novodonetsk community has now been added to the list of mandatory evacuation areas, from which another 51 children must be evacuated. The mandatory evacuation zone for families with children has also been expanded to include other districts of Sloviansk and settlements in the Sloviansk and Svyatogorsk communities.
Since the beginning of September, 246 children have already been evacuated from the mandatory evacuation zones: 194 from the Kramatorsk community; 34 from the Sloviansk community; 16 from the Sviatohirsk community; and 2 from the Novodonetsk community.
The centralized, free resettlement of Donetsk residents to other, safer regions of Ukraine is ongoing. Since the beginning of September, 15 regions have taken in residents of the Donetsk region. Zhytomyr Oblast has taken in the largest number of evacuees—164 people. In total, over the 16 days of September, 318 evacuees were provided with free housing, including 98 people with limited mobility.