Zelenskyy announces mandatory evacuation from Donetsk region following strike on prison

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered the mandatory evacuation of the eastern Donetsk region on Saturday. It has been the scene of fierce fighting.

In a late-night television address, Zelenskyy said the hundreds of thousands of people still in combat zones in the larger Donbas region need to leave. It contains Donetsk as well as the neighbouring Luhansk region.

“The more people leave the Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill,” he said, adding that the government would compensate those forced to leave the region.

It comes as Russia and Ukraine trade accusations over a strike on a prison early Friday, which appears to have killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POW) in the frontline town of Olenivka, held by Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Donetsk.

Ukraine has said Russian artillery targeted the prison to hide the mistreatment of POWs. Russia claims Ukraine targeted the prison with a U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.