Civilians try to flee east Ukraine as Russia prepares attack

Desperate evacuation attempts from eastern Ukraine were under way Thursday as authorities warned of an imminent Russian offensive, following the devastation around Kyiv that has shocked the world.

Russian troops have been withdrawing from around the capital and Ukraine’s north, leaving a trail of destruction, as they prepare for an expected assault on the country’s southeast.

Scenes of carnage that Ukrainian officials have accused retreating troops of leaving behind in towns including Bucha have sparked outrage and led to a wave of fresh sanctions against Moscow.

But on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia was undeterred and continued “to accumulate fighting force to realise their ill ambitions in (eastern) Donbas”.

“They are preparing to resume an active offensive,” he said.

Begging civilians to leave the region “while it is still possible”, local officials in Donbas’ Lugansk and Donetsk said the region was already facing constant indiscriminate shelling.

“We can see clearly that before the enemy goes to full attack, they will just destroy places completely,” local governor Sergiy Gaiday in Lugansk told Ukrainian broadcaster Channel 24.

Gaiday said on Facebook that more than 1,200 people had been evacuated from Lugansk on Wednesday, but that efforts were being hampered by artillery fire, with some areas already inaccessible.

For those unable to leave, he said, tonnes of food, medicine and hygiene products were being delivered as part of a massive humanitarian effort.

The head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration said strikes had targeted aid points.

“The enemy aimed directly there with a goal to destroy the civilians,” Pavlo Kyrylenko wrote on Facebook.

He added that people were heeding calls to flee and he would be coordinating evacuation to make it “faster and more effective”.

Shells and rockets were also slamming into the industrial city of Severodonetsk, the easternmost city held by Ukrainian forces.

“We have nowhere to go, it’s been like this for days,” 38-year-old Volodymyr told AFP, standing opposite a burning building in Severodonetsk.

More than 11 million people have been displaced since Russia attacked on February 24, aiming to seize the capital.

With that goal thwarted, Russia is instead trying to create a land link between occupied Crimea and Moscow-backed separatist statelets in Donbas.

Ukrainian forces are also regrouping for the offensive, including on a two-lane highway through the rolling eastern plains connecting Kharkiv and Donetsk.

Trench positions were being dug, and the road was littered with anti-tank obstacles.

“We’re waiting for them!” said a lieutenant tasked with reinforcing the positions, giving a thumbs up.

As preparations on the ground ramped up, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba demanded Nato members help Ukraine boost its firepower.

“My agenda is very simple. It has only three items on it. It’s weapons, weapons, and weapons,” Kuleba told journalists on Thursday.

“I call on all allies to put aside their hesitations, their reluctance, to provide Ukraine with everything it needs,” he said.

The evacuation calls are being fuelled by fears of fresh atrocities, after chilling discoveries in areas from which Moscow’s troops have withdrawn.

British energy giant Shell warned Thursday that it would write off up to $5 billion (4.6 billion euros) after signalling its gradual withdrawal from the country last month.