In his nightly speech, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said hundreds of thousands of people still in combat zones in the wider Donbass region must also leave. Zelensky said the sooner people leave “the fewer people the Russian army will have to kill.” He said: “Full support, full help – both logistics and payments. We just need a decision from the people themselves, who have not yet made it for themselves. Go, we will help.” The president added that hundreds of thousands of people still in combat zones in the wider Donbas region had to leave. Separately, Ukrainian domestic media quoted Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying the evacuation had to take place before winter sets in, as the region’s natural gas supplies had been destroyed. Donetsk has seen heavy fighting in recent days, particularly in the eastern city of Bakhmut, which is the focus of the Russian offensive in Donbas. The announcement comes amid ongoing attacks in the region, including one on a prison in Olenivkain, in the Russian-controlled region of Donetsk. Image: A firefighter works on a market complex destroyed by a Russian missile strike in Bakhmut, Pic: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Reuters Officials from Russia and separatist authorities in Donetsk said the attack killed 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war and wounded 75. Ukraine has accused Russia of deliberately bombing the prison to cover up torture and executions there. Russia blamed Ukraine for the attack. South of Bakhmut, Ukraine’s military said Russian forces were “partially successful” in taking control of the settlement of Semyhirya, storming it from three directions. Subscribe to Ukraine War Diaries on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Spreaker Despite the attacks in the Donbas region, defense and intelligence officials from Britain have portrayed Russian forces as struggling to maintain momentum in the war. The UK Ministry of Defense said on Saturday that the Kremlin was becoming “desperate”, adding that it had lost tens of thousands of troops. The head of Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence agency, Richard Moore, also said Russia was “getting out of hand” in its attack on Ukraine. Read more: Russian forces take control of key power station – and push more troops south, ex-TV journalist found guilty of ‘discrediting’ Russia’s armed forces In southern Ukraine, in the Kherson region, the Ukrainian military said it killed dozens of Russian soldiers and destroyed two ammunition dumps. The southern military command said more than 100 Russian soldiers and seven tanks were destroyed in the fighting on Friday. “The Ukrainian army is throwing it at the Russians and this is just the beginning,” wrote the first deputy head of the Kherson regional council, Yuriy Sobolevsky, on the Telegram app. Rail traffic to Kherson over the Dnipro River has also been cut, the military’s southern command said, possibly further isolating Russian forces west of the river from supplies in occupied Crimea and to the east.
