Deputy PM Iryna Vereshchuk said on TV that, despite intense fighting in Bakhmut, about four thousand residents remain in the city, including at least 38 children.

Vereshchuk reminded that before the full-scale Russian invasion, more than 70,000 people lived in Bakhmut, including 12,000 children. Thus, as of today, 95% of the population has left the city.

The minister added that it is currently very difficult to get to the city due to constant shelling.

Moreover, those who remain in the city almost always hide in basements and it is very difficult to find them and take to safer regions.

‘People do not leave because of hostilities and information vacuum. Communication is difficult there, and people are in a stress due to heavy shelling. They are not aware of the real threat to civilians’, she explained.