The mayor of Slavyansk, strategically important for Donbass, Vadym Lyakh, who was previously a deputy from the Party of Regions, and in 2020 was elected mayor from the Opposition Bloc, told NV that in the city where 100,000 people lived before the full-scale Russian invasion , there are about 23 thousand people .

” Among them a large number of children – around 4 thousand,” – said the mayor.

He said he was trying to persuade the remaining residents to evacuate, but their fear of being far from home was greater than their fear of fighting.

Lyakh also said that on June 27, the Russians fired on cluster munitions at Slavyansk at 8:30 a.m. when there were people on the street. As a result, one person was killed and four were seriously injured.