To avoid mandatory evacuation from the eastern Siberian city of Pokrovsk, parents are hiding their children from local authorities amid warnings of a rapid advance by Russian troops.

Communities in and around Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine are being urged to flee within the next two weeks as Russian forces continue to advance, even as Ukraine itself has already invaded Russian territory, catching Moscow by surprise.

Russia insisted on Thursday that it had thwarted another Ukrainian attempt to advance into the border region around Bryansk, while Ukraine continues to advance into the Kursk region.

“Don’t wait. It’s not getting better, it’s only getting worse. Go.” That was the stark warning from local official Yuri Tretiak, head of the military administration in the town of Myrnohrad, which is now less than 3 miles from the front line.

According to the Ukrainian ministry responsible for the reintegration of regions previously under Russian control, children with their parents or other legal representatives are being forcibly evacuated from certain districts of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, including Pokrovsk district.

But Tretiak said many people are still unwilling to leave the country, even going so far as to hide their children from local authorities and encouraging the military administration to make home visits.

“We have cases where parents are hiding their children. Today (August 20) we will have a meeting with the police to discuss how to deal with such people, how to look for such parents who are hiding their children and making false statements that the children have been gone for a long time,” he said, noting that the danger is increasing as attacks are occurring daily in some parts of the city.

“Those who hesitated a week ago have largely made up their minds and are leaving the country in droves,” he said, noting that the most common arguments of residents who have not yet left the country are: “I have nowhere to go” or “nobody needs me.”

According to the Pokrovsk military administration, almost 59,000 people live in the entire municipality, which includes the cities of Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad and 39 surrounding villages. About 600 to 700 people are evacuated every day, the administration said.

“The enemy is advancing faster than expected,” Tretiak said in a radio interview on Tuesday. “That’s why we are trying to do as much as possible to evacuate people by the end of the week.”

Although Pokrovsk is not a large city – about 60,000 people lived there before the war, and many have left since the start of the large-scale invasion – it serves as an important hub for the Ukrainian military due to its convenient access to Kostiantynivka, another military center.

Ukrainian troops are using the road connecting the two cities to supply the front lines with supplies and evacuate the wounded towards Dnipro.

The evacuations come after Ukrainian forces said on Wednesday that Pokrovsk was now the “hottest” front of the war. “The situation in the Pokrovsk sector remains tense. Ukrainian troops have repelled 11 attacks, and fighting continues in four locations,” the Ukrainian forces said in their latest update.

As communities in and around Pokrovsk continue to come under fire, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday that Russian troops had occupied the eastern Ukrainian village of Meshhove as part of their ongoing offensive in the region.

The ministry said units of the Central Group of Russian Armed Forces had taken control of Meshove in the Donetsk region, which was illegally annexed by Russia. The Ukrainian military has not commented on the situation in the village.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces in the eastern region would be reinforced to repel a possible Russian advance.

In his evening speech, Zelensky said: “The front line is our position, primarily the Pokrovsk direction, our Donetsk region. We understand the enemy’s movements and are strengthening ourselves.”

Russia admits to attempted invasion

Meanwhile, according to the governor, Russian forces repelled a Ukrainian attempt to invade the border region around Bryansk on Wednesday.

“On August 21, an attempt to infiltrate the Ukrainian DRG into the territory of the Russian Federation was thwarted in the Klimovsky district of the Bryansk region,” regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Thursday on his official Telegram channel.

Forces and military units of the Russian domestic intelligence service (FSB) responded to the Ukrainian breakthrough attempt, Bogomaz said, adding that the area where the clashes took place was now stable and under Russian control.

Ukraine has not commented on the alleged incursion.

Ukraine had previously targeted the Bryansk region in its operations since its invasion of Russia more than two weeks ago.

In Ukraine’s bold cross-border advance into Russia’s Kursk region, Kyiv troops claimed over 1,000 square kilometers of Russian territory and destroyed key bridges in the western part of the country.

The attack – which represents a major embarrassment for the Kremlin – represents a remarkable shift in strategy for Kyiv, as it is the first time since World War II that foreign troops have entered Russian territory.

CNN’s Kostyantyn Hak, Anna Chernova and Amy Cassidy contributed reporting.

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