⚡️🇺🇦🇷🇺The head of Ukraine’s breakaway Donetsk republic, Denis Pushilin, has announced the start of a mass evacuation of the Donetsk population to Russia’s Rostov region starting Friday.

⚡️Security siren sounds in Donetsk - Sputnik correspondent

❗️Powerful explosion rips through Donetsk, Sputnik correspondent says

⚡️ President Biden will deliver remarks on the Ukraine crisis at 21:00 GMT Friday.

The speech will come after his call with transatlantic leaders at 19:30 GMT.

🇺🇸🇮🇷 Substantial progress has been made in the Iran nuclear talks in the last week, the State Department tells Sputnik.

“If Iran shows seriousness, we can and should reach an understanding on mutual return to full implementation of the JCPOA within days,” it said.

A People's Militia spokesman said a vehicle was blown up in a parking lot near the building housing the republic's government

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⚡️Footage from the scene of a recent car explosion near the government building in the center of Donetsk.

The US State Department says that it considers the evacuation and explosions in Donbass as a pretext for an operation against Ukraine

🇺🇸 The State Department calls the evacuation of Donbas residents to Russia and the car blast in Donetsk a “false flag operation” and “disinformation.”

“Announcements like these are further attempts to obscure through lies and disinformation that Russia is the aggressor in this conflict. This type of false flag operation is exactly what Secretary Blinken highlighted in his remarks to the UN Security Council,” a spokesperson told Sputnik.

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The current situation in Donbass:

▪️ The authorities of the DPR and LPR have announced the temporary evacuation of residents to Russia's Rostov region in connection with the threat of an invasion by the Kiev security forces; women, children, and the elderly are leaving first

▪️ Rostov's governor asked President Putin for emergency assistance: according to Putin's order, every refugee from Donbass will receive 10,000 rubles of aid

▪️ The first buses with 600 children from orphanages and boarding schools are already leaving for Russia from the DPR, Pushilin says hundreds of thousands of people could be evacuated

▪️ The evacuation is being carried out due to fears for the safety of children but the authorities of the DPR promise that life in the republic will continue

▪️ The car of the head of the People's Militia Sinenkov exploded near the governmental building – the DPR's head Pushilin said that this was a sabotage and preparation for the offensive of Kiev

▪️ Pushilin said that "the situation in Donetsk is developing toward war"

The first buses transporting people from the DPR have departed for the Russian border. In total, 700,000 people are expected to be evacuated

⚡️ Kiev hopes for trilateral contact group meeting on Saturday amid Donbass escalation

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❗️The DPR said that Ukrainian security forces fired hundreds of shells on their territory today

⚡️The White House is concerned about Zelensky's plans to leave Ukraine to attend the Munich Conference, NBC reports citing sources

Buses evacuating people from Donetsk to Russia’s Rostov region