Nikolai Fedorovich, who declined to give his full name, crossed the border on Sunday at the Avilo-Uspenka crossing, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) from the capital of Donetsk.
He and his wife were taking their daughter-in-law and 4-year-old granddaughter to stay with relatives in Rostov-on-Don, and had stopped to have lunch at a cafeteria set up near the crossing by Russian emergency services.
The move marked a sharp escalation in Russia-Ukraine tensions that have been escalating for months.
Nikolai Fedorovich said that he and his wife did not plan to stay in Russia and would instead return home to Donetsk the same day.
“Everyone decides for himself whether they want to leave, but we survived 2014,” he said, referring to the actual war that broke out eight years ago in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces. pointing to.
rising tension
Nikolai Fedorovich said his 33-year-old son had no choice but to stay behind amid sanctions and mobilization orders. “A lot of parents with children are living in Donetsk,” he told CNN.
Leaders in the detached regions announced plans to evacuate some 700,000 civilians, but it is unclear how many have reached southern Russia in recent days.
Local estimates vary, but Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted the FSB (Russian Security Service) border department for the Rostov region as saying on Monday that more than 21,000 people evacuated from the Donbass had joined Russia in the past 24 years. Crossed the checkpoints on the border. hours.
Now that Russia has recognized the two self-declared republics as independent of Ukraine, it looks like they will be back soon.
His excuse for leaving – the threat of a Ukrainian invasion – appears to have evaporated, even though it was largely imagined in the first place.
Evicted people interviewed by CNN at the Avilo-Uspenka border crossing on Sunday said they had left the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic voluntarily.
Those with nowhere to go can stay in the improvised camp here: toilets, showers, and two rows of inflatable tents, inside which the evacuees sleep on cots and wait to be taken to another residence.
The Russian government has promised a 10,000 ruble ($130) stipend for new arrivals, but any withdrawals CNN did not say how to claim it.
border crossing families
A CNN reporter on Sunday saw a convoy of military trucks full of military personnel heading towards the Ukrainian border. Cars with license plates of the self-proclaimed republic can be seen traveling in the other direction.
The flow of traffic – mostly buses and civilian cars – leaving Donetsk for Russia on Sunday morning was moderate. Small groups of evacuated people – mostly families with young children – crossed the border on foot.
Tatiana Zhigankova, 22, was there to welcome the young new arrivals with gifts of Alonka chocolates—a nostalgic Soviet treat.
Zygankova is part of the All-Russian People’s Front, a pro-Putin youth movement. Its members, easily recognized by their red caps, are mobilized to help with the improvised evacuation camp.
“We help people in crisis situations,” she said. He and other volunteers are working 12-hour shifts, “greeting people, offering any help or support.”
35-year-old Irina, a kindergarten teacher from Donetsk, fled with her 5-year-old son Daniil at midnight after hearing gunfire.
“Everything happened spontaneously, we heard gunfire around 1.00, I grabbed my child and ran away,” Irina told CNN near the border.
Irina, who declined to give her last name for security reasons, said she was taken with her son to the checkpoint on foot before leaving for Russia.
She said that relatives had called some acquaintances in Rostov and asked them to host her and her son for some time. “We’re waiting for people who never got around to pick us up.”
Pointing to her son – who was more interested in Alonka chocolate than the confusion around him – Irina explained: “He was not even born in 2014-2015, so he does not understand. He spoke about the war. I heard it, but he doesn’t know what it means.”
“I stayed in 2014, but I don’t want him to hear or see anything,” she said.
confusion and uncertainty
Nearby, two young women — Sveta, 19, and Natalya, 20 — stood at the border crossing, bags ready, preparing to return to Donetsk, having only been in a temporary camp for a day.
“We decided we wanted to go back because there is nothing for us here and my house and my parents are in Donetsk,” Sveta, who declined to give her full name, told CNN. The couple said they had lived in Donetsk in 2014 and had become accustomed to the shelling.
When a large group of people – mostly women and children – arrived at the makeshift camp early on Sunday, volunteers gathered them in a circle to wait for a bus. They were being taken to the port city of Taganrog to catch a train in Russia – and away from their homes.
Leaders from several Russian regions have offered to host those who choose to leave the separate republics if tensions rise.
Some evacuees plan to stay with friends or family in Russia, while others are loaded onto buses and taken to nearby summer camps and sanctuaries in the Rostov border region, which are repurposed as temporary housing. He is going.
In the village of Krasniy Desnat, about 52 miles (84 km) from the Avilo–Uspenka crossing, some evacuees were being accommodated in the Kotlostroitl sanatorium, with its high gates closed by the police to deter unwanted visitors.
Olga, one of the Donetsk evacuees who is living in Kotlostroitel, spoke to CNN outside the sanatorium.
Olga, 25, declined to give her full name, saying, “We were fine, but there was a lot of confusion.”
“Our leadership asked us to evacuate and then Russian officials met us at the border,” she said. “We’re not sure what’s going to happen next and how long we’ll be here.”