"Mobilization will begin on Monday [9 February] and it will not be compulsory, but rather voluntary," DPR head Oleksandr [Aleksandr] Zakharchenko has said. 

According to him, the situation in the population centres of the republic remains complicated.

"At a meeting today with city and district heads, the issues of building bomb shelters in the cities of the DPR and [conducting] work during shelling were discussed. In Vuhlehirsk, evacuation of civilians is already under way," Zakharchenko said.