The Russian military is forcibly taking children from their parents in Zaporizhzhya Region for the purpose of forced evacuation. They are also forcibly taking women with children., residents of the occupied areas of Zaporizhzhya Region have told LB.ua. The information was also confirmed by sources in law enforcement agencies.
"Many women and children were taken to non-operational recreation centres in Kyrylivka and Berdyansk. Children were also taken away from their parents, and people in the villages had to hide them," eyewitnesses said.
Yesterday, the occupiers forcibly took children from the district centre of Polohy and the villages of the district. The Russians took two buses with women and children from the village of Oleksiyivka alone. The occupiers announced that the evacuees would first be taken to recreation centres and then to Crimea.
The occupiers also took doctors from the village of Kamyanka to Berdyansk.
Local residents suggest that the Russians may arrange provocations to encourage people to evacuate. In particular, today, the occupiers brought a fire truck, a crane, and a KamAZ truck with an armoured capsule to the village of Smyrnove (Polohove District) for no reason.
It is possible that the Russians will try to use the forcibly evacuated people as human shields during their retreat, as they did when they fled Kherson.
On the morning of 6 May, "evacuation buses" arrived in occupied Berdyansk. According to preliminary reports, the people taken from the occupied territories of Zaporizhzhya Region were accommodated in recreation centres. A third of the buses were filled with civilians, and the rest were filled with Russian military personnel.
As reported earlier, the Russians want to "move" almost 70,000 Ukrainians living in the occupied territories of Zaporizhzhya Region deeper into the region.
Russian troops are also stepping up counterintelligence and police efforts in the occupied territory of Zaporizhzhya Region.