Sputnik goes live from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine where the emergency evacuation of civilians has started.
This comes after the republic’s head Denis Pushilin called on local residents to evacuate to Russia, claiming that Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky was going to order an invasion of the breakaway republic.
The head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, also urged local residents to prepare to flee to Russia.
The situation on the contact line between Ukraine and the DPR and LPR has worsened in the past 24 hours after Kiev intensified shelling of the territories of the self-proclaimed republics.
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