KRAMATORSK, Ukraine -- Russia redoubled its push for Ukraine's eastern Donbas region Wednesday, with the Ukrainian military claiming to have repelled some advances and both sides reporting casualties.
The Ukrainian armed forces General Staff said troops stopped enemy units advancing towards Sloviansk, a city in Donetsk, one of two provinces in the Donbas whose capture is among Moscow's main goals. It also claimed to have repelled Russian attacks on a town and village north of Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv, just miles from the Russian border.
The Ukrainian presidential office said most civilian casualties were in Donetsk province, where Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said two people died in the city of Avdiivka; the cities of Sloviansk, Krasnohorivka and Kurakhove each reported one civilian killed.
"Every crime will be punished," he wrote on social media.
Kyrylenko urged the province's more than 350,000 remaining residents to flee late Tuesday, saying that evacuating Donetsk was necessary to save lives and allow the Ukrainian army to put up a better defense against the Russian advance.
Donetsk is part of the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking industrial area where Ukraine's most experienced soldiers are concentrated. Pro-Russian separatists have fought Ukrainian forces and controlled much of the Donbas for eight years.
Before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, the two self-proclaimed separatist republics. Putin on Monday declared the complete seizure of Luhansk, after Ukrainian troops withdrew from the last city under their control in the province.
Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai denied Wednesday that the Russians had completely captured the province. Heavy fighting continued in villages around Lysychansk, the city Ukrainians soldiers withdrew from and which Russian troops took Sunday, he said.
"The Russians have paid a high price, but the Luhansk region is not fully captured by the Russian army," Haidai said. "Some settlements have been overrun by each side several times."
He accused Russian forces of scorched earth tactics, "burning down and destroying everything on their way."
The Russian military pounded Luhansk for weeks from the air and ground, causing mass destruction and large civilian casualties. When Russian troops enter villages and cities, they are largely empty. From pre-war populations each of around 100,000, only up to 15,000 residents remain in Lysychansk and some 8,000 in the nearby city of Sievierodonetsk, which Russian and separatist fighters seized last month, Haidai said.
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskky, in his nightly video address Wednesday, said that of all the battles in his country, "the most brutal confrontation" is raging in the Donbas.
The Associated Press on Wednesday saw the bloody aftermath of one attack in the rebel-held Donetsk town of Makiivka and spoke to eyewitnesses who said a Soviet-era missile struck a playground outside a residential home. Local separatists blamed the attack on Ukrainian forces.
Blood stained the seat of a swing and pooled on the ground below. Russian media cited the separatists as saying two children were killed and three children and two adults were wounded.
"The boy was lying on the swings like this and I saw he had blood coming out from this side," said resident Svetlana Lyga. "I did not come close ... I simply couldn't. The girl was taken by the ambulance. She was alive at that moment."
North of Donetsk, Russian forces hit Kharkiv with missile strikes overnight. Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said Wednesday on Telegram that one person was killed and three, including a toddler, were injured. First responders crunched through the debris of a Kharkiv university, where Zelenskyy said the main building, lecture halls, museum and library were destroyed.
Meanwhile, a top Kremlin official warned the U.S. on Wednesday that it could face the "wrath of God" if it pursues efforts to help establish an international tribunal to investigate Russia's action in Ukraine, while the Russian lower house speaker urged Washington to remember that Alaska used to belong to Russia.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council chaired by President Vladimir Putin, denounced the U.S. for what he described as its efforts to "spread chaos and destruction across the world for the sake of 'true democracy.'"
"The entire U.S. history since the times of subjugation of the native Indian population represents a series of bloody wars," Medvedev charged in a long diatribe on his Telegram channel, pointing out the U.S. nuclear bombing of Japan during World War II and the war in Vietnam. "Was anyone held responsible for those crimes? What tribunal condemned the sea of blood spilled by the U.S. there?"
Responding to the U.S.-backed calls for an international tribunal to prosecute the perceived war crimes by Russia in Ukraine, Medvedev rejected it as an attempt by the U.S. "to judge others while staying immune from any trial."
"It won't work with Russia, they know it well," Medvedev concluded. "That's why the rotten dogs of war are barking in such a disgusting way."
"The U.S. and its useless stooges should remember the words of the Bible: Do not judge and you will not be judged ... so that the great day of His wrath doesn't come to their home one day," Medvedev said, referring to the Apocalypse.
He noted that the "idea to punish a country with the largest nuclear potential is absurd and potentially creates the threat to mankind's existence."
In another blustery warning to the U.S., Vyacheslav Volodin. a longtime Putin aide who serves as the speaker of the lower house of parliament, warned Wednesday that Washington should remember that Alaska was part of Russia when it freezes Russian assets. Russia colonized Alaska and established several settlements there until the U.S. purchased it from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million.
"When they attempt to appropriate our assets abroad, they should be aware that we also have something to claim back," Volodin said during a meeting with lawmakers.
Information for this article was contributed by Cara Anna and staff members of The Associated Press.
Ukrainian journalists walk in the yard of National Pedagogic university destroyed by a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
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)
Ukrainian servicemen take their position near the frontline in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, July, 5, 2022. The writing on the T-shirt reads "Good evening. We are from Ukraine". (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a joint press conference with Ireland's Prime Minister Micheal Martin following their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Kravchenko)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen leaves after delivering her speech at the European Parliament during the presentation of the program of activities of the Czech Republic's EU presidency, Wednesday, July 6, 2022 in Strasbourg, eastern France. The European Union's Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said that the 27-nation bloc needs to emergency plans to prepare for a complete cut-off Russia gas in the wake of the Kremlin's war in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
Ukrainian serviceman looks on National Pedagogic university destroyed by a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
An excavator clear the rubble of military registration office destroyed by Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)Gallery: Images from Ukraine, month 5
