Ukraine's Zelenskiy announces mandatory evacuation of Donetsk region

Firefighters work at a site of residential house destroyed by a Russian missile strike, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kramatorsk, Ukraine July 29, 2022. Press service of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration/Handout via REUTERS

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday his government was ordering the mandatory evacuation of people in the eastern Donetsk region, scene of fierce fighting with Russia.

In a late-night television address, Zelenskiy also said the hundreds of thousands of people still in combat zones in the larger Donbas region, which contains Donetsk as well as the neighboring Luhansk region, needed to leave.