‘Evacuate eastern regions while there’s still time’

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister has warned people in large parts of eastern Ukraine to evacuate while it’s still possible.

Iryna Vereshchuk said that military leaders in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk regions were asking local people to try to leave and that they were doing all they could to make this happen “in an organised way”.

If people did not leave, she said, they would soon find themselves under fire and under threat of death.

“There is nothing that they can do against this, and we won’t be able to help them,” she added.

Russia has said it is refocusing its military operations on the Donbas, comprising both the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, is close to the Russian border and has been targeted by Russian forces since the beginning of the war.