MOSCOW, July 14 (RIA Novosti) - The number of refugees from southeastern Ukraine in Russian temporary accommodation centers (TACs) has increased by more than 1,800 in the past 24 hours, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said.
“Currently, 23,843 people, including 9,295 children, are placed in 341 TACs,” Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky said.
The ministry’s spokesman also noted that eight additional TACs with a capacity for 3,600 people are deployed and ready to receive the refugees.
The refugees head mainly to Crimea and Sevastopol, as well as to the border areas of the Central and Southern Federal Districts. Due to their increasing number, the authorities of six Russian regions neighboring Ukraine recently declared a state of emergency.
Drobyshevsky added that the Emergency Situations Ministry organized a round-the-clock hotline to provide comprehensive assistance to the refugees, that the ministry’s planes helps deliver people from southeast of Ukraine and that a mobile hospital operates in Russia’s border city of Donetsk, Rostov region.
According to Russian children’s rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov, Rostov region alone is hosting more than 30,000 people and just under 1,700 people, including 520 children, arrived in TACs in the past 24 hours.
The flow of refugees from southeastern Ukraine to Russia increased dramatically late June due to the ongoing standoff between the independence supporters and government troops.
