Vadym Filashkin, governor of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, signed an order to forcibly evacuate children living on roughly 30 of the streets in the city of Sloviansk most vulnerable to Russian shelling on Friday.
Sloviansk is just 13 km (8 miles) from the front line. Russia controls roughly 80 percent of the Donetsk region.
“Saving lives is the most important thing. Especially the lives and health of children who are not able to make decisions and leave on their own,” Filashkin said in a Telegram post.
“The order has been submitted for approval to the Coordination Headquarters for Evacuation Measures and Effective Response to Mass Displacement of the Population, established by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine,” he added.
Authorities ordered the evacuation of families and children from parts of nearby Kramatorsk in October 2025. The two cities, which are just 15 km (9 miles) apart, are part of Ukraine’s “fortress belt,” crucial military and logistic hubs connecting the front line to the rest of the country.
Military personnel and civilians alike live under constant bombardment, and the streets of Sloviansk are stalked by Russian drones. On March 10, Russia dropped two guided aerial bombs on a residential area in the city center of Sloviansk, killing four civilians and injuring 16 others, including a 14-year-old.
It was far from the first time that a child has been killed by a Russian attack on the city.
Russia has reportedly made the capture of Ukraine’s entire Donetsk region its main battlefield priority for 2026, concentrating forces around several key cities.
More than four years into Russia’s full-scale war, many Donetsk residents have chosen to stay in – or return to – their homes, rather than face displacement elsewhere in the country or life as a refugee abroad.
Unsurprisingly, being located within range of Russian shelling sends property prices into a freefall. However, this does not mean that houses and apartments are left empty.
According to The Economist, finding a rental property in Sloviansk can take weeks. In Kramatorsk the monthly rent for a bungalow is 60,000 hryvnia ($1,370) – higher than the purchase price of the cheapest flats.
For residents of Sloviansk, Russian aggression began long before Feb. 24, 2022. In April 2014, the city was occupied by Russian-backed forces for 84 days.
More than 100 local residents were killed and over 2,000 houses were destroyed in Sloviansk during that period.