Ukrainian authorities on Friday ordered the evacuation of more than 3,000 children with their parents from around 40 localities in the Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions, where Russian forces have made advances in recent months.
“Due to the difficult security situation, it was decided to forcibly evacuate more than 3,000 children and their parents from 44 localities located on the front lines in the Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions,” Ukrainian Minister of Reconstruction Oleksiï Kuleba said on Telegram.
According to him, evacuations have also already taken place in the last days of December in the Cherniguiv region in northern Ukraine.
150,000 people evacuated since June
“In total, 150,000 people have been evacuated from frontline areas to safer regions since June 1 (2025),” said Oleksiï Kouleba.
The announcement of the evacuation of civilians by the Ukrainian authorities gives an indication of the progression of Russian forces on the front, on the verge of threatening new localities.
Most forced evacuations of civilians in Ukraine in recent years have been in the eastern Donetsk region, where most of the fighting is concentrated. But the Russian army is also advancing in Dnipropetrovsk, where it entered in the summer of 2025, and in Zaporizhia, where the front had remained frozen for years.
Strong Russian progress in 2025
The Russian army has made its strongest advance on the front in Ukraine in 2025 since the first year of the invasion, according to data analyzed by AFP, maintaining great military pressure while negotiations are expected on Saturday between kyiv and its allies with a view to a hypothetical end of hostilities.
Russian forces seized more than 5,600 km2 of Ukrainian territory during the year 2025, more than the years 2024 and 2023 combined, according to data from the ISW, which works with the Critical Threats Project (CTP), another American think tank specializing in the study of conflicts.
In December, Moscow conquered 244 km2, its lowest monthly progress since March in a context of winter weather conditions, but accelerated its offensive in the Donbass, the eastern region where the main Ukrainian defenses are located.
The Russian army occupies approximately 19.4% of Ukraine’s area, of which 0.94% has been conquered over the past year.
cab with afp
