Seven minors remain in Avdiivka, some attempt to leave by themselves

Vitaliy Barabash, who heads the Avdiivka military administration, shared this insight with Espreso.

"The situation regarding children has changed and they are now leaving the city. As of today, seven children remain. Yesterday there was a mindblowing incident. A boy left on his own without his parents. He walked around the city looking for volunteers, to leave with them. He is 17 years old, a student. His parents refused to help him leave. He wanted to go to his relatives – and they refused. So he ran away from home and walked off under fire. Then he realized that it was already evening and he wouldn’t find any volunteers. He was afraid to go home, but he still went back, got changed, and left the city on foot. Thank God, our guys were driving, they saw him when he was already outside the city. He was walking close to the front line. They picked him up, brought him to Pokrovsk. Now we will deal with the deprivation of parental rights. This morning we talked with people he’s staying with right now – the boy’s been shaking the whole day," he said.

Barabash is sure that in a week all the children will be able to leave the city.

"Many residents have left – in three weeks we’ve evacuated 150 people; people with personal transport have also left. 1 960 people in the city are on the lists to receive humanitarian aid. There are definitely more – not all of them are on the lists. There are maybe 2 200-2 300 people left, definitely not 2 500, which was the previous figure," Barabash concluded.