Go now or see death in the eye, said Donbass residents when Russia was preparing for an attack

The residents of Eastern Ukraine have to go or to death against the Donbass on a great Russian offensive, said the deputy prime minister of Ukraine on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian military said that Russia let troops flock to the east after being attempted to take Kiev, and warned that civilians who stayed back would be included.

The warning came when western security officers said that Vladimir Putin put pressure on the generals before the celebration of the victory day on May 9 in Russia, which marked the end of the Second World War, a significant victory.

iryna Vereshchuk, deputy prime minister of Ukraine, said that eleven humanitarian corridors were opened to evacuate civilians.

"It is now necessary because then people are shot at and threatened with death," she said. “You won't be able to do anything about it and we will not be able to help because it will be almost impossible to stop the shot.

"It is necessary to evacuate as long as there is such an option. At the moment it still exists."

The bosses of the military administration in the Charkiw, Luhansk and Donetsk military administration had asked people to go "as long as it is safe".

Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, wrote on Telegram: "We will all bring out if the Russians allow ourselves to get to the meeting place [for evacuation]. As you can see, you do not always adhere to ceasefire."

Russian troops started with the retreat from the Kiev and Tschernihiw regions last week. Moscow now seems to be concentrating on a two -track offensive to surround and destroy the Ukrainian armed forces concentrated in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Russia said at the end of the last month that it would concentrate on the “liberation” of the People's Republics Donetsk and Luhansk, two renegade small states supported by Russia, which Wladimir Putin had recognized as independent in the run -up to the invasion.

The puppet republics, which in 2014, who had been curated by Russia in 2014, claim the Donetsk and Luhansk areas in their entirety, but checked only a third of the territory before the invasion of February 24.

Mr. Gaidai said that the Russians had "sixty percent" of the city of Rubizhne in the Lugansk region and accused a former civil servant to have helped the Russian armed forces by handing over information. He said one person was killed and five injured.

Russian troops seem to have taken Izyum, a city between Kharkiw and Donetsk, and make slow progress towards the strategic crossroads at Slawjansk, where a group of Russian fighter began in 2014.

The authorities there said on Wednesday that the postal and pension infrastructure would be moved to another city and bank branches would be closed.

"We are worried and panic. Everyone is trying to keep hope for a peaceful future in Slavyansk. There are always fights outside the city and it comes closer and closer," said Maria Khudenova, a 21-year-old student in the city.

Svetlana, a 29-year-old illustrator who remembers the Battle of 2014, said the prospect of fleeing her home a second time, she had "a terrible feeling" when she warned that not everyone could go.

"City officials have repeatedly asked the residents to evacuate. But there are many different circumstances and not everyone will be able to withstand the trip," she said The telegraph. “If you are older or disabled, it is impossible.

"I spent eight years of my young life with the first war in Donbass. Then I said goodbye to my home, but survived. At the moment my home is still there. But what happens this year is not sure about that."

A western official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said on Wednesday that the Russian withdrawal from the north was largely completed, but apart from some air landing units, there have been no signs of "mass laying" in the Donbass.

Around 29 tactical groups of the Russian battalion were "not made" in the battle for Kiev and would need at least a week to restore or to be merged with other formations before they are strong enough to fight, said the official.