All civilian residents of the Donetsk oblast, if possible, should temporarily leave for a safer region. Head of the Donetsk military administration Pavlo Kyrylenko called for this in an interview with LIGA.net.
He stressed that there is a high probability that the situation in the region "will become more complicated".
"This is obvious", - he said.
"In this case, one of the important levers of manipulation and achievement of results for the enemy will be the population. Therefore, people need to leave in order to knock this lever out of the occupier's hands. And it will be much easier for the Donbas defenders to beat the enemy", - the official explained.
Answering the question whether the legal regime of martial law provides for the forced resettlement of people in order to facilitate the task of the military, Kyrylenko said that the military command and local administrations have such powers.
"But we will not turn into an occupier. Understanding the population itself is more effective. We will do everything so that people have somewhere to return", - he stressed.
A similar appeal to civilians was made by head of the Luhansk military administration Serhiy Haidai.