War in Ukraine, day 893 | Kyiv orders evacuation of several localities in the East

(Kyiv) Ukraine announced on Sunday the evacuation of children and their parents from localities in the Donetsk region (East), close to areas where Russia has claimed advances in recent days.

Hours earlier, Russia announced that it had captured a village in the area. In recent weeks, Moscow has claimed responsibility for several other settlements, most of them containing only a few streets.

“The enemy is shelling the cities and villages in these surroundings every day. Therefore, it was decided to evacuate the children with their parents or other legal representatives,” said Donetsk region governor Vadym Filashkin, who gave a list of localities in the areas where Russia claimed to have gained ground.

Mr Filachkin mentioned the town of Novogrodovka, which is about 20 kilometres from the village of Novoselivka Persha, which Russia claimed on Sunday.

“In total, we need to evacuate 744 children with their families from four communities to safer regions of Ukraine,” the Donetsk governor announced.

“I have given instructions that only armoured vehicles should participate in the evacuation of children,” he said, referring to the Russians’ use of FPV (First Person View) drones that allow their pilots to see live images of the terrain as if they were on board.

“We must make efforts to protect our children,” he added.

The governor has called on civilians to leave the area in recent weeks due to an increase in Russian bombings.

In this third year of conflict, neither Moscow nor Kyiv are in a position to decisively tip the balance of the conflict, despite recent territorial gains by Russian forces.

In 2022, Russia claimed the annexation of the Donetsk region, as well as three other regions in the east and south, although it does not control all of them.

Ukraine receives its first F-16 fighter jets

Ukraine has received its first Western F-16 fighter jets, which it has been waiting for for more than two years, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sunday, showing them to journalists while stressing that their number was “insufficient”.

Since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, Kyiv has been pleading for the delivery of F-16s in the hope of ending Russian dominance in the air and better protecting its cities and troops from relentless Russian bombing.

American-made, the planes are considered the crown jewel in a sprawling list of military hardware Ukraine has requested from its backers as it tries to repel the advance of Russian forces on its soil.

“We have had hundreds of meetings and negotiations” with allies to obtain the planes and strengthen the country’s air defenses and “we have often heard the words ‘it is impossible’ in response,” Zelensky said at a ceremony at a secret site in Ukraine.

“Now it is reality, reality in our skies. F-16s are in Ukraine,” he said happily.

Mr Zelensky did not disclose the number of aircraft received by Kyiv, saying only that it was “insufficient”, nor the number of Ukrainian pilots trained in the West to fly and maintain these aircraft.

Neither the date of delivery nor the country that supplied this first batch have been revealed.

“What is positive is that we are expecting additional F-16s” and that “many of our guys are being trained,” the Ukrainian president assured.

AFP journalists saw at least two F-16s flying over the site during the ceremony.

Behind Volodymyr Zelensky, two other gray aircraft resembling F-16s were on the ground, partially covered with camouflage nets and their tails emblazoned with the national coat of arms, the trident.

In mid-May, President Zelensky said in an interview with AFP that he needed 120 to 130 of these aircraft to achieve parity with the Russian air force.