Ukrainians flee Kramatorsk for Germany

STORY:

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his government was ordering the mandatory evacuation of people in the eastern Donetsk region, the scene of fierce fighting with Russia.

"It's safer there," one of the passengers, Anna Ivanovna said. "All of Ukraine is under shelling. And we have sisters in the church there."

Another passenger, Sasha Oleksandra, said she was travelling to Germany with her youngest child.

"My mother is there, she's been there for a long time, five months. My oldest son, too," she said.

Ukrainian officials have said they expect Kramatorsk, a city of more than 150,000 people before the Russian invasion, to become one of the main focuses of Russia's offensive in eastern Ukraine. Authorities said some 65,000 people remained in the city northeast of the frontline and have been occasionally hit by Russian shell fire.