Under the chairmanship of the Deputy Prime Minister for the Restoration of Ukraine – Minister of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine Oleksiy Kuleba, a meeting of the Coordination Headquarters for Evacuation Measures and Response to Mass Displacement of the Population was held.
In connection with the security situation, a decision was made on the mandatory forced evacuation of children together with their parents, persons replacing them, or other legal representatives from 44 settlements of Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
“Unfortunately, in some settlements the situation remains dangerous. Our main task is to protect children and give families the opportunity to be safe. That is why we make decisions to evacuate children together with their parents or legal representatives from territories where the threat to residents remains high. It is important that each evacuated family receives proper support: from temporary housing to legal support,” said Oleksiy Kuleba.
In particular, a decision was made to forcibly evacuate children:
from 4 settlements of two communities of Zaporizhia region – 651 children,
from 40 settlements of five communities of Dnipropetrovsk region – 2,463 children.
The meeting also discussed the security situation in Chernihiv region. On December 30, mandatory evacuation was announced in 14 settlements there: the evacuation of 3 settlements has been completed, and in 11 it is still ongoing. Evacuation is being carried out within the region.
During the meeting, Oleksiy Kuleba emphasized the need for clear coordination of evacuation and timely placement of people. He instructed regional military administrations, in particular those regions that receive evacuees, to coordinate actions and ensure proper conditions for families, in particular for children.
Since June 1, almost 150 thousand people have been evacuated from frontline areas to safer regions, including almost 18 thousand children and more than 5 thousand people with limited mobility. About 94.4 thousand people were evacuated from Donetsk region, over 35 thousand people from Dnipropetrovsk region, over 4.6 thousand people from Sumy region, over 3.8 thousand people from Kherson region, over 8.8 thousand people from Kharkiv region, and over 2.7 thousand people from Zaporizhia region.
Currently, 17 transit centers are operating to receive evacuated citizens. The largest number of people are being received by the Centers located in Pavlohrad and Voloskeme in Dnipropetrovsk region, as well as in the city of Lozova in Kharkiv region.
In transit centers, people receive comprehensive assistance: humanitarian, medical, psychological, legal and social. They are helped to restore documents, apply for payments and social services, as well as receive financial support from the state and humanitarian organizations.
In places of temporary residence of internally displaced persons, the total number of beds for temporary accommodation reaches more than 80.5 thousand, of which more than 7.3 thousand remain free for settlement.
For their part, regional military administrations are deploying additional beds for the evacuated population. As of December 1, more than 15.4 thousand new beds have been additionally deployed, including about 169 for people with limited mobility.
The crisis hotline 15–48 continues to operate 24/7. Specialists provide information on evacuation procedures, a list of territories where hostilities are or have been ongoing, temporary residence conditions, obtaining status and assistance for internally displaced persons, and also records appeals in case of violation of citizens’ rights.