KRAMATORSK, Ukraine -- A day after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in seizing an eastern Ukraine province essential to his wartime aims, his troops escalated their offensive in the neighboring province Tuesday, prompting the governor to urge a mass evacuation of residents.
Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said that getting the 350,000 people remaining in Donetsk province out is necessary to save lives and to enable the Ukrainian army to better defend towns from the Russian advance.
"The destiny of the whole country will be decided by the Donetsk region," he told reporters in Kramatrosk, the province's administrative center and home to the Ukrainian military's regional headquarters.
"Once there are less people, we will be able to concentrate more on our enemy and perform our main tasks" Kyrylenko said.
The governor's call for residents to leave appeared to represent one of the biggest suggested evacuations of the war. According to the U.N. refugee agency, more than 7.1 million Ukrainians are estimated to be displaced within Ukraine, and more than 4.8 million refugees left the country since Russia's invasion started on Feb. 24.
Because they house critical infrastructure such as water filtration plants, Kyrylenko said Russia's main targets are now Kramatorsk and a city 10 miles to the north, Sloviansk. He described the shelling as "very chaotic" without "a specific target ... only to destroy civilian infrastructure and residential areas."
Sloviansk also came under sustained bombardment Tuesday. Mayor Vadim Lyakh said on Facebook that "massive shelling" pummeled Sloviansk, which had a population of about 107,000 before Russia invaded Ukraine. Lyakh who urged residents hours earlier to evacuate, advised them to take cover in shelters.
At least one person was killed and another seven wounded Tuesday, Lyakh said. He said the city's central market and several districts came under attack, adding that authorities were assessing the extent of the damage.
The barrage targeting Sloviansk indicated that Russian forces were positioned to advance farther into Ukraine's Donbas region, a mostly Russian-speaking industrial area where the country's most experienced soldiers are concentrated.
Sloviansk has previously taken rocket and artillery fire, but the bombardment picked up in recent days after Moscow took the last major city in neighboring Luhansk province, Lyakh said.
"It's important to evacuate as many people as possible," he warned Tuesday morning, adding that shelling damaged 40 houses on Monday.
Russia's defense minister and Putin said the city's subsequent capture put Moscow in control of all of Luhansk, one of two provinces that make up the Donbas. The office of Ukraine's president said the Ukrainian military was still defending a small part of Luhansk and trying to buy time to establish fortified positions nearby.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday the war in Ukraine would continue until all of the goals set by Putin are achieved. However, Shoigu said "the main priorities" for Moscow at the moment were "preserving the lives and health" of the troops, as well as "excluding the threat to the security of civilians."
When Putin ordered the invasion, his stated goals were defending the people of the Donbas against Kyiv's alleged aggression, and the "demilitarization" and "de-Nazification" of Ukraine.
Pro-Russia separatists have fought Ukrainian forces and controlled much of the Donbas for eight years.
Before the invasion, Putin recognized the independence of the two self-proclaimed separatist republics in the region. He also sought to portray the tactics of Ukrainian forces and the government as akin to Nazi Germany's, claims for which no evidence has emerged.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian military said Russian forces also shelled several Donetsk towns and villages around Sloviansk in the past day but were repelled as they tried to advance toward a town about 12 miles to the city's north.
South of the city, Russian forces were trying to push toward two more towns and shelling areas near Kramatorsk.
CHANGE OF POWER
Meanwhile, Moscow-installed officials in Ukraine's southern Kherson region on Tuesday announced the formation of a new regional government, with a former Russian official at the helm.
Sergei Yeliseyev, the head of the new Moscow-backed government in Kherson, is a former deputy prime minister of Russia's western exclave of Kaliningrad and also used to work at Russia's Federal Security Service, or the FSB, according to media reports.
It wasn't immediately clear what would become of the "military-civic administration" the Kremlin installed earlier. The administration's head, Vladimir Saldo, said in a Telegram statement that the new government was "not a temporary, not a military, not some kind of interim administration, but a proper governing body."
"The fact that not just Kherson residents, but Russian officials, too, are part of this government speaks clearly about the direction the Kherson region is headed in the future," he said. "This direction is to Russia."
Kherson's Russia-installed administration previously stated plans for the region to become part of Russia, either through a referendum or other means.
There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials.
PLEA TO HELP
A top U.S. diplomat on Tuesday urged allies of Ukraine to help the war-battered country meet its "immediate and urgent" needs -- not only longer-term rebuilding -- as scores of countries wrapped up a two-day conference aimed at helping Ukraine recover from the war, when it ends one day.
Scott Miller, the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland, added a dose of urgency to the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano, at which the Ukrainian prime minister a day earlier presented a $750 billion plan to help his country both recover now -- where possible -- as well as in the immediate aftermath of the war and over the long term.
Many attendees pointed out that efforts were likely to take many years and rebuilding would need to take place in several phases. Some called for support for Ukraine along the lines of the U.S. Marshall Plan for Europe after World War II.
"While we recognize the importance of preparing for Ukraine's future, all of us must also deliver on our commitments to provide Ukraine its immediate and urgent needs," said Miller, one of many government envoys who decried Russia's war and detailed their support for Ukraine.
Some, however, cautioned that quick fixes were unlikely.
"I really understand that we want to be ready overnight -- to start tomorrow," Swiss President Ignazio Cassis told reporters. "But we clearly declare: It is the first step of a long journey."
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, flanked by Cassis, cautioned that his government would carefully select immediate projects for rebuilding places such as schools, hospitals and other infrastructure as the war rages on because Russian forces could simply "destroy it again."
"It will be an unfinished process," Shmyhal said, alluding to a broader "fast recovery" in a second phase. "So we should wait for the finish of war actions, and then begin this fast recovery."
He voiced hopes to lock down and utilize an estimated $300 billion to $500 billion in Russian-owned assets that have been frozen in many Western banks to help pay for Ukraine's reconstruction. Such money could complement cash from Ukraine's own budget, as well as support from allies abroad.
Cassis pointed to the legal complexities of such an undertaking to wrest such Russian funds, saying "the right of property is a fundamental right -- is a human right." Switzerland has about $6.5 billion in Russian assets, while the Swiss Bankers Association estimates $154 billion to $206 billion worth of total Russian-owned assets are held in Swiss financial institutions.
"You have to ensure the citizen that is protected against the power of the state," Cassis said.
A final document dubbed as the "Lugano Declaration" laid out goals to help Ukraine build back better -- which include government transparency, respect for the environment, and fighting corruption that has plagued the country since it split from Russia after the end of the Soviet Union three decades ago.
Information for this article was contributed by Francesca Ebel and Jamey Keaten of The Associated Press.
The Ukrainian flag, top, flies with others European flags outside the European Parliament , Tuesday, July 5, 2022 in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
Soldier Valentyna with her cat and partner Vitalii, right, take a walk in the main square of Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 5, 2022. The couple just returned from the frontlines of Lysychansk to take some time off. They are planning to return to fight. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
A Ukrainian serviceman looks at the rubble of a school that was destroyed some days ago during a missile strike in outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, July, 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
Clothes and shoes on display to be distributed to people, at the humanitarian aid headquarters, in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
Viktor Lazar, 37, collects water from a pumping system in the basement of his apartment house in Saltivka district after Russian attacks in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ukrainian servicemen strengthen trenches on their position near the frontline in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, July, 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, left, and Minister for Veterans Affairs Iulia Laputina, hold a joint-interview for The Associated Press and Reuters, in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
Viktor Lazar, right, cleans the street in front of his apartment in Saltivka district after Russian attacks in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
An appartment building damaged by a Russian attack in Saltivka district in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)Gallery: Ukraine photos July 6, 2022
