About 3,500 residents leave border areas in Chernihiv region due to shelling - governor

Viacheslav Chaus, head of the region's military administration, said this in a comment to Ukrinform as part of a meeting of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President of Ukraine.

"We do not carry out forced evacuations, but today we do everything together with local government bodies so that people can leave. First of all, we have about 12,500 places for the temporary stay of persons who are resettled from the border areas. They are throughout the region. By the way, many of such places are located in the communities where people already live, but further south, away from the border. Because people don't want to move far away. If we talk about numbers, then today 3,500 residents have left the border areas that are constantly under fire. These are both children and adults," Chaus said.

He noted that as of today, the enemy has intensified shelling of the Chernihiv region's border areas, using FPV drones and guided aerial missiles.

"On average, there are 15-17 shelling instances per day, with various types of weapons used. Now they [Russian forces] have increased the number of FPV drones dropping munitions or kamikaze drones. Also today, the enemy has begun to use aircraft and guided aerial missiles more often. Accordingly, those affected today are settlements that are constantly shelled, and about 15,000 people live there," Chaus said.

According to him, enemy troops do not choose military targets for shelling, but simply shoot at people and civilian infrastructure.

Chaus mentioned the recent shelling of the town of Semenivka, which killed a woman and left two people wounded. It was just shelling from multiple rocket launchers at the center of the town. There was no specific target. Their goal is simply to kill people and destroy infrastructure, Chaus said.