Local residents stand next to a building that was damaged in the night, following Russian shelling in Komyshevakha, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine on Monday, May 8. Polohy is one of over a dozen frontline settlements that occupying forces announced Friday would be emptied of civilians. It is as yet unclear what impact these evacuations – which on Sunday Russian occupation officials said amounted to 1,600 people – will have on Moscow’s ability to hold frontline towns. He evaded their tight scrutiny of his whereabouts when a local occupation official failed to turn up to work one day, and he drove a minibus of civilians out. The regular effective targeting of Russian positions by Ukrainian firepower sparked a manhunt in the town for an informant.

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