These reports are a complete fabrication. Evacuation from the border areas of Sumy region has not yet begun. The local authorities are still compiling lists of those willing to move to safer regions, after which free transfers and accommodation will be organized for internally displaced persons (IDPs). Sumy Regional Military Administration emphasizes that there will be no emergency or forced evacuation. If someone decides to refuse to be evacuated, it is enough to write a request.
Propaganda Telegram channels, as well as some Russian media, are spreading disinformation that the Ukrainian authorities are allegedly “forcibly” evacuating residents of the border areas of Sumy region, while charging a considerable fee. According to the propagandists, the vacated houses will allegedly be occupied by the Ukrainian military.
“The Ukrainian authorities, who recently announced a forced evacuation from the territories bordering Russia, decided to combine business with pleasure and make some more money. While the Western media are competing to make Zelenskyy look like a greater humanitarian, real extortion has begun in Ukraine,” propaganda media write.
Due to the continuous Russian artillery shelling of Ukraine’s border areas, on July 10, the Sumy Regional Military Administration decided to prepare and evacuate residents of the five-kilometer border zone in Sumy region. If the shelling intensifies, the evacuation zone may be extended to 10 kilometers.
“The evacuation of Sumy region residents from the five-kilometer zone is a necessity that has been long overdue,” the Sumy Regional Military Administration says. “Constant artillery shelling of border communities, which has recently increased significantly, is destroying infrastructure, vital facilities, and private homes. And most importantly, our people are dying. If a total of 35 civilians were killed by enemy shelling from January to July 2023, then last month 17 people, including 1 child, were killed by Russian troops in the border communities of the region.“
The propagandists’ claims that the Ukrainian authorities are allegedly “forcibly” removing people from the border area are not true. The press service of the Sumy Regional Military Administration emphasizes that there is no emergency or forced evacuation. If a local resident refuses to be evacuated, he or she must write a statement of refusal. Those citizens who agree to evacuate will be moved to safe places.
The Sumy Regional Military Administration says that as of July 18, 80% of the population in the 5-kilometer border zone of Sumy region has already been notified of the evacuation, and several thousand people have written refusals to evacuate.
As of today, evacuation from the border areas has not yet begun, as local authorities are still compiling lists of people willing to move to safer regions. Nevertheless, on July 15, the first evacuation train Sumy-Kyiv was launched for IDPs from the temporarily occupied territories who travel to Russia and then return to Ukraine through the Sumy region. Residents of the border areas can also use it. When a separate train is launched to evacuate residents of the border areas, it will run on the route Sumy-Kyiv-Vinnitsia-Khmelnytsky-Ivano-Frankivsk. It will be free of charge. The Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories notes that at the station, at the Ukrposhta branch, every citizen will be entitled to receive assistance in the amount of 3,000 UAH for children and people with disabilities and 2,000 UAH for everyone else upon arrival.
UNIAN reports that housing is being prepared in safer regions for internally displaced persons from border settlements. For example, Chapliyivka, Shostka district, is ready to accept evacuees. An outpatient clinic is being converted to accommodate IDPs. In addition, modular towns are planned to be built in the Nedryhailivska, Lokhvytsia and Pyriatynska communities of Poltava Oblast. Those who want to evacuate will most likely be accommodated in schools, sanatoriums, and kindergartens for the first time.
Earlier, StopFake journalists refuted the false information that the Armed Forces of Ukraine allegedly “shelled Kherson region during the evacuation of residents.”
