Zelensky calls for mass evacuation of Donetsk region

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has urged civilians to evacuate the frontline Donetsk region as clashes with the Russian military escalate.

Zelensky warned in his daily address that thousands of people, including children, were still in the region's battleground areas.

'There's already a governmental decision about obligatory evacuation from Donetsk,' Zelensky said, underscoring authorities' calls to leave the besieged region in recent weeks.

'Leave, we will help,' Zelensky said, according to the Daily Mail newspaper.

Official Ukrainian estimates put the number of civilians still living in the Donetsk areas that have not been taken by Russia yet at between 200,000 and 220,000.

KI/PR