About 3,500 civilians remaining in Bakhmut, with whom there are 32 children in the city, refuse to be evacuated, head of the regional military administration Pavlo Kyrylenko said.

"Bakhmut is a city with about 84,000 inhabitants as of February 24, 2022. Now it is extremely difficult to say with an accuracy of every figure, because people have the opportunity to be even in the temporarily occupied territory. But according to our calculations, less than 3,500 people remained in the city of Bakhmut. These are the people, and I can say with all responsibility, who do not want to leave the city at all, despite the fact that a colossal, extremely safe amount of work has been done to evacuate them ... At present, 32 children, together with their parents, who also refused to leave, remained in Bakhmut. That is, they are in shelters. I know for sure that even in those extremely terrible conditions, they are provided with more than enough food and hygiene kits," he said at a briefing at the Ukraine-Ukrinform media center on Thursday.

Kyrylenko stressed that people not only refuse to leave, but even hide from the employees of the National Police and the State Emergency Service when they make room rounds.

At the same time, as the head of the regional military administration noted, high-status children, that is, pupils from orphanages and boarding schools, were completely evacuated. According to him, there were about 12,000 such children in the region.