A day after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in capturing an eastern Ukrainian region vital to his military goals, his troops stepped up their advance in the neighboring region, prompting the governor to call for a mass evacuation of residents, the Associated Press reported.
Governor Pavlo Kirilenko said the evacuation of the 350,000 people remaining in Donetsk Oblast was necessary to save lives and enable the Ukrainian army to better defend the cities from the Russian advance.
“The fate of the entire country will be decided in the Donetsk region,” Kirilenko told reporters in Kramatrosk, the administrative center of the region and the seat of the Ukrainian army’s regional headquarters.
“When there are fewer people, we will be able to concentrate more on our enemy and perform our main tasks,” he said, BTA reports.
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