AVILA USPENKA CHECKPOINT, Russia, Feb 19, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - The loud

explosions and wailing sirens in rebel-held territory in eastern
Ukraine were getting more frequent, so when the evacuation order came,
Elena Sokela decided it was time to get her son to safety.

   "We didn't want to wait until it was too late. Better to get out
now," the 40-year-old told AFP Saturday at a border crossing between
the rebel Donetsk region and Russia, a day after the order to evacuate
came down.

   There was a steady flow of people acting on the order to leave,
crossing between wire fencing topped with Russian flags on a bright
morning at the Avila Uspenka checkpoint into Russia.

   On Friday evening, leaders of two separatist republics in east
Ukraine ordered women and children to flee and as soon as possible
make their way to Russia.

   Their poor and industrial rebel-controlled territories in Ukraine
have been at the centre of weeks of tensions between Russia and the
West.

  Conflict monitors have warned of a sharp escalation in ceasefire
violations in fighting between Ukraine's army and the separatists, a
trend Sokela herself could attest to.

   In her hometown of Shakhtarsk, she said, "we can hear everything
perfectly clearly. There were explosions on Thursday. Some heavy stuff
was coming down."

  The US government earlier hit out at the orders, saying the move by
Moscow-backed rebels was a "cynical" effort by Moscow to deflect from
what the West fears is an imminent Russian invasion.

  At the checkpoint Saturday there was a steady stream of elderly
women and children, dressed in puffy coats on a crisp winter day and
dragging wheelie bags.

   Sokela was bringing her 16-year-old son to stay with his
grandmother in Russia "where it's calm" but planned to return herself.

  "Let's stay for a week and come back. Or maybe the school will be
closed. No one has said anything yet," Sokela said.

   Separatist leaders have announced plans to get hundreds of
thousands of people out of the territory and into Russia, but AFP
journalists at the crossing Saturday witnessed no mass exodus.

   - 'Can't abandon people' -

   Ten school buses waiting to ferry arrivals stood empty and 15 tents
set up by the emergencies ministry on the Russian side of the crossing
had no one to house.

   So far, separatist officials have said fewer than 20,000 people
have left, a fraction of the region's estimated population of three
million people.

   Still, Russian authorities were readying for a large influx, with
officials in the Rostov region bordering Ukraine declaring a state of
emergency and saying places were being prepared for nearly 900,000
people.

   The head of Russia's emergencies ministry, who was dispatched by
the Kremlin to Rostov, said Saturday some 400 people and 150 vehicles
were in place to receive people arriving from separatist territory.

   Several other nearby regions have announced they will house Donetsk
and Lugansk residents.

   President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered handouts of 10,000
rubles (about 100 euros) to evacuees and health officials have said
those entering Russia can be tested for the coronavirus and
vaccinated.

   Many, however, hope the displacement will be temporary.

   The head of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic Denis Pushilin
met with residents leaving, Russian news agencies reported, to offer
reassurances.

   "I hope it won't be for long," he was cited as saying. "But safety
is paramount."

   Lyubov Rodoman, a 57-year-old nurse also from Shakhtarsk, was
crossing into Rostov in the morning but was only planning a short
stay.

   "I'll be here in Russia today to do my errands and then I'll come
back later," she said.

   "I'm a medical professional. I can't abandon people. I didn't leave
them in 2014, I won't leave them now," she added.