In Luhansk region, the evacuation has been suspended, the Russians are shelling the “road of life”, as the route from Lysychansk to Bakhmut is called. This was officially announced by the head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration Serhiy Haidai. The road, which was overhauled only in the spring of 2021, was destroyed by the enemy army.

Lysychansk, Verkhnokamyanske, Spirne, Belogorovka, Soledar, Bakhmut. These settlements are connected by the “road of life”. This is the name of the route used to evacuate people from Luhansk region.

Oksana Malyna was leaving in a minibus with volunteers. He says the road was still safe at the time.

“I left on April 26. At that time there were already cases of evacuation bus shelling. When we were driving on the highway, it was scary, because there were explosions nearby, but the road was not shelled. When I arrived in Bakhmut, I only felt relatively safe,” – tells Public Oksana.

Subsequently, the shelling became more frequent. The evacuation continued, people were taken out in armored buses, until on May 30 near Lysychansk a shell fell near the evacuation vehicle, a fragment pierced the armored glass. French journalist Frederic Leclerc died on the spot. The shrapnel wounded a patrolman who was driving a car.

“The road is in extremely poor condition, there have been battles. There is burned enemy equipment, funnels from the arrival of enemy artillery. The road is damaged, but still moving on it, that is, Luhansk region is not surrounded,” said Luhansk Patrol Police Chief Viktor Levchenko.

Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, about 35,000 residents of the region have been evacuated by Lysychansk-Bakhmut road, the regional military administration’s press service said.

“We do not use it, because it is 99% to come under fire, lose people and cargo and cars. We are very concerned that our cars were intact, because now the truck is worth its weight in gold. “By road, it is much worse, much longer,” explains Serhiy Haidai, head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration.

If possible, residents of Luhansk region continue to be taken out without announcing an evacuation.