Leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, said on Monday that Ukraine is applying a forceful evacuation of the population from the territories in the DPR was underway. 

In an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel, Pushilin said that the evacuation is intended to “delegitimize” the referendum that the separatist authorities plan to hold after supposedly liberating the entirety of the territory.

"What does [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky want? After these settlements are liberated, he will say: ‘There were no people there, what kind of referendum you are speaking about?’ It is a kind of preparatory work," he said to Rossiya-24. 

Read more: Zelensky orders mandatory evacuation of Donetsk

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Tuesday via Telegram, "The mandatory evacuation from the Donetsk region has started. The first train arrived in Kropyvnytskyi on Tuesday morning carrying women, children, elderly and disabled people. We received and accommodated all of them." 

According to the Ukrainian authorities, the Ukrainian government plans to evacuate about 220,000 people before the start of winter. An evacuation task force has been set up to manage departures.

“Those who have decided to evacuate should call the administration (…), people will come to pick them up and transport them to the place of evacuation,” Vereshchuk said.

Responding to people who did not wish to leave their homes, Vereshchuk said “that (the decision) is their personal responsibility, but I repeat, there will be no gas, heating, and electricity."