Ukraine: near Bakhmout, evacuations are now managed by the army

Audio 01:07

Ukrainian soldiers on BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, near the city of Bakhmout, February 27, 2023. REUTERS - STRINGER

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1 min

Extremely tense situation in Bakhmout, in eastern Ukraine, where the Russian paramilitary group Wagner continues its breakthrough and threatens to succeed in its bet: to surround this city which has become a symbol of the conflict between Kiev and Moscow, and to seize it.

Sign of the tension that reigns on the spot, the evacuations of civilians are increasing in an environment laminated by the bombardments, and are now supported directly by the Ukrainian army.

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With our special correspondents in Rai-Oleksandrivka,

and 

Rai-Oleksandrivka village, 30 kilometers from Bakhmout.

When we arrive, we come across a team from the SBU, the Ukrainian military intelligence.

Two guys who avoid our questions, but who have just spent half an hour in a meeting with Galina, the village chief.

And if they came, she tells us, it's because something is changing.

From now on, the military themselves will be in charge of the evacuations.

And it is his commune, Raï-Oleksandrivka, which will serve as a place of transit.

Children are expected to arrive from Bakhmout and its surroundings, families with children.

The army will escort them here.

Then they will be transferred, I don't know where, maybe somewhere in Ukraine, to safer areas.

In any case, it never happened.

Until now, people left by their own means.

All signals converge.

Bakhmout's defense is faltering.

Should we see, behind these militarized evacuations, the beginning of the Ukrainian withdrawal?

Nobody here ventures to confirm it officially.

► To read also: War in Ukraine: the Russians attacking Bakhmout

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