Facebook blocks official page of East Ukrainian City of Horlivka for 24 hrs

Facebook has blocked the official page of the government of the eastern Ukrainian city of Horlivka for 24 hours due to its posts about the beginning of the evacuation of residents to Russia amid the threat of Kiev's aggression, the city authorities said on Saturday.

"Friends, today the official community of the administration of the city of Horlivka on the social network Facebook was blocked by the administration of the site for 24 hours. The reason for the blocking was the post about the beginning of the evacuation of residents of Horlivka to Russia amid the threat of the outbreak of hostilities by the Ukrainian armed forces," the authorities said in a statement.

The pro-Russian separatist governments in Luhansk and Donetsk People's republics started the evacuation of civilians to Russia on Friday, fearing military aggression by the Ukrainian authorities. DPR head Denis Pushilin has said he is expecting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to order an offensive against the self-proclaimed republics in the near future. Meanwhile, Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine said late on Friday that Kiev's forces had no orders to launch a military offensive in eastern Ukraine.

The conflict between Ukraine's government and the breakaway DPR and LPR has been simmering since 2014. In February 2015, the Minsk Agreements, designed to find a political resolution to the conflict, was negotiated by the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine in the Normandy group format. However, the agreement has not been observed so far and sporadic clashes continue. Moscow has repeatedly stated that Kiev is not fulfilling the agreements and is delaying negotiations to resolve the conflict.

(ANI/Sputnik)