I am in Mariupol city right now, the sounds of bombing are heard, it is more panic, but we do not have such information yet that they are talking about entering the city. Vahagn Matevosyan, the head of the Union of Armenians of Donetsk Region, told this to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

"Foreseeing all this, we had prepared in advance, our compatriots wanted have been evacuated, and we are constantly in touch with those who decided to stay in their homes. Overall, there is a psychologically tense situation. People who do not have a car but want to be evacuated, we have cars that are ready to evacuate them. But I can say that at the moment more than 50% do not want to leave their homes," Matevosyan added.

According to him, there are no definite numbers yet on how many Armenians have been relocated.

"Most of the Armenians went to Dniepropetrovsk [city]. We have an arrangement that the evacuees gather near the Armenian church, where they are met by representatives of the Armenian community, given first aid, and after which everyone goes to the house of a relative, acquaintance," said the head of the Union of Armenians of Donetsk Region, adding that they are in constant contact with the Embassy of Armenia in Ukraine.

As reported earlier, in his video address to the Russians at 5:50am Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he had made a decision on conducting a “special military operation” in Donbas.